The Self as a Container: Implications for Implicit Self-Esteem and Somatic Symptoms

Abstract

If the self is a container, then it very much matters what is in that container. The authors borrow from this self-as-container spatial metaphor to suggest that individual differences in implicit self-esteem, based on a spatial compatibility task, should predict somatic symptoms such as muscle soreness, headaches, and breathing difficulties. Specifically, lower levels of implicit self-esteem, as measured by the Implicit Association Test, should predict a higher frequency and intensity of somatic symptoms. This prediction was investigated in two studies involving a total of 157 undergraduate participants. As predicted, correlations between implicit self-esteem and somatic complaints were robust and negative in direction, as measured by a questionnaire designed to tap anxious arousal (Study 2), momentary (Study 1) and daily (Study 2) reports of somatic symptoms, and informant reports (Study 2). The findings are consistent with spatial metaphor in suggesting that lower levels of implicit self-esteem are associated with tendencies to internalize negative evaluations, in turn biasing bodily symptom perception.

Do you use your head or follow your heart? Self-location predicts personality, emotion, decision making, and performance.

“…Asking people to locate the self in the head or the heart prior to the outcomes was deemed potentially too high in demand characteristics. Nonetheless, and given that the self is psychologically a bodily entity (Burris & Rempel, 2004; Robinson et al, 2006), we thought it likely that the self would “travel” to the organs pointed to and influence outcomes for this reason.…”

“I Am a Waste of Breath, of Space, of Time”

“…The metaphor of self as weight was also connected in the pro-ana personal profiles to a more basic metaphorical understanding of the body as a container (for the container metaphor, see Kövecses, 2010; Lakoff & Johnson, 1999; Robinson, Mitchell, Kirkeby, & Meier, 2006). As one participant declared, “I am working to build the strongest character inside the gentlest body possible.” This statement illustrates how the body was literally constituted as the container of the true, inner self, for some members of the group.…”

If I Only Had a Membrane: A Review of Amoebic Self Theory

“…Without a doubt, AST and its alternatives often try to come to terms with the same phenomena. Indeed, although most of the theoretical alternatives that we acknowledged in this paper focus primarily on phenomena that are germane to what we refer to as the spatial‐symbolic domain, we can be assured that other theories have the bodily (e.g., Robinson, Mitchell, Kirkeby, & Meier, 2006) or the social (Green, Sedikides, & Gregg, 2008) domains as their predominant focus. At such points of intersection, AST and its alternatives may offer convergent or divergent interpretations.…”