Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
n. The way a person views themself.
Wikipedia
Self-image is the mental picture, generally of a kind that is quite resistant to change, that depicts not only details that are potentially available to objective investigation by others (height, weight, hair color, gender, I.Q. score, etc.), but also items that have been learned by that person about themself, either from personal experiences or by internalizing the judgments of others. A simple definition of a person's self-image is their answer to the question "What do you believe people think about you?".
Self-image may consist of three types:
- Self-image resulting from how the individual sees themself.
- Self-image resulting from how others see the individual.
- Self-image resulting from how the individual perceives others see them.
These three types may or may not be an accurate representation of the person. All, some or none of them may be true.
A more technical term for self-image that is commonly used by social and cognitive psychologists is self-schema. Like any schema, self-schemas store information and influence the way we think and remember. For example, research indicates that information which refers to the self is preferentially encoded and recalled in memory tests, a phenomenon known as " Self-referential encoding". Self-schemas are also considered the traits people use to define themselves, they draw information about the self into a coherent scheme.
Usage examples of "self-image".
The place was as big as one of those warehouse club megastores and was packed wall-to-wall with Long Island office workers hot-wiring weekend self-images in Hathaway suits, with big-haired girls in sequined jackets and leggings, limbs jangling gold chains on the crashing backbeat of music that braced you like a high wind.
Wendy could see that he was goofing on the self-images he was realtime mixing into the ceaseless global interactive multiuser stunglasses Show.
When adults see children emoting, it brings up their own emotions, which they have denied for so long and which they are no longer equipped to handle without losing self-image.
Often, narcissists react badly to ACCEPTANCE and LOVE rather than to rejection because they have a self-image as mean, vicious, frightening, etc.
The Demon-Sea's revision of his self-image was galleried around us like a chorus of jeers.
Talking about how healthy my self-image is, is like the gateway drug to pure psychobabble.
Feeding the poor, clearing the roadways-until the internal conflict between order and chaos built and destroyed your self-image.
She is now, in compensation, unwilling to accept these startling, alarming insights, trying to restore her former self-image, trying to be pronouncedly defiant.
But these gods and goddesses are not transpersonal modes of awareness, or genuinely mystical luminosities, but simply a collection of typical and everyday self-images (and personae) available to men and women.
His personality would be synthesized from his own recorded self-images and from any that you all provide, but it would be synthesized, a layer atop the cymol.