PSYCHOLOGY MASTER'S THESIS ABSTRACT

Cheri Beiner
MA-Research
December 1999

Differences in Body Image and Self-Concept between Sighted and Congenitally Blind Women

    Body and self-esteem in congenitally blind women, who are visually unaware of media-defined images of beauty and thinness, were compared to sighted women.  Two hypotheses were advanced: (a) Congenitally blind women would demonstrate more positive body images, and (b) they would evaluate themselves against different criteria than sighted women and would have higher self-esteem.  The Body Esteem Scale, the Sociocultural Attitudes Toward Appearance Questionnaire, and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale were administered to 30 sighted and 16 blind women.

    Contrary to expectations, blind women did not demonstrate higher self-esteem and more positive body images than sighted women, nor were between-groups differences found on awareness of media-defined images of attractiveness.  Results suggested group differences in terms of the degree of internalization of the images.  Blind women reported lower esteem on general physical condition than sighted women.  Implications of results for future research in the area of women’s body and self-esteem are discussed.

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