INDIVIDUAL VARIANCE SCORE: AN INDEX OF THE DEGREE OF DIFFERENTIATION OF THE SELF AND THE BODY IMAGE.

The article presents information on an exploratory study that examines the degree of differentiation of the self and the body image. Fifty-one female and 48 male college students were tested with body-cathexis and self-cathexis questionnaires. Women showed greater variability in cathexis-responsiveness to the body than men, but the sexes did not differ in mean variance for self-cathexis. Men showed more variability in cathecting their selves than their bodies, while the women did not display this difference. It was concluded that women have more highly differentiated body-images than men, that among women, the self-concept and the body-image are differentiated to an equivalent degree.