June 2007 - Volume 1, Issue 3

BODY CONSCIOUSNESS AND SOCIAL NORMS:
CROSS-CULTURAL EVIDENCE FROM IRAN AND JAPAN

	Asghar Dadkhah, PhD University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation, Iran
	Asghar Dadkhah, PhD. Department of Clinical Psychology University of Social welfare and rehabilitation Evin, Kudakyar Ave., Tehran, 19834, Iran E-mail: asgaredu@uswr.ac.ir

ABSTRACT According to Schilder (1950), body image can be defined as "the mental picture that we have of our bodies" or, in other words, "the way our bodies appear to us", and expanding on Schilder's idea, Allamani (1990) refers to body consciousness as "a complex psychological organisation which develops through the bodily experience of an individual and affects both the schema of behaviour and a fundamental nucleus of self-image. Since body consciousness is greatly influenced by the social norms, it would be interesting to see whether such consciousness is more prevalent in individualistic or collectivist societies. Iranian and Japanese subjects (collective society) were administered the language equivalents of Body Consciousness Questionnaire (BCQ), which was developed by Miller, Murphy, & Buss in USA (individualistic society), BCQ-Persian, BCQ-Japanese. Subjects belonging to both cultures were found similar in respect to their type of body consciousness (such as, public as against private). These two groups however differed in their level of awareness, with Iranian subjects found to have more public consciousness about their body as compared to that of Japanese.

Key words: Body consciousness, cross-cultural evidence, Iran, Japan INTRODUCTION

A number of studies make reference to concepts and theories related to body such as "body conciousness", "body percept", "body image", "body concept", "body schema" and "body values". According to Schilder, body image can be defined as "the mental picture that we have of our bodies" or, in other words, "the way our bodies appear to us" (Schilder, 1950). Expanding on Schilder's idea, Allamani (1990) refers to body consciousness as "a complex psychological organisation which develops through the bodily experience of an individual and affects both the schema of behaviour and a fundamental nucleus of self-image". How one thinks and feels about one's body will influence one's social relations and one's other psychological characteristics.

Body consciousness refers to an awareness arising out of the information of kinestetic, tactile, and visual origin (Kinsbourne, 1995, 2002). "The mental operations that result in the conscious awareness of the body are guided by a person's knowledge about the relationships between his body parts, not by a separate fixed egocentric representation of the body" (Kinsbourne, 1995, p. 219). When a particular event or stimulus violates the information present in the body, the information itself becomes accessible at a conscious level (Baars, 1988). This facilitates the process of modification and, by means of the mediation of the self (which tries to integrate and maintain the consistency of the different representations of the body), also makes it possible to influence body conciousness.

There are individual differences in consciousness of the public and private aspects of oneself (Fenigstein, Scheier, & Buss, 1975). "Public body consciousness involves a chronic tendency to focus on and be concerned with the external appearance of the body, while the private body consciousness is the disposition to focus on internal bodily sensation" (Miller, Murphy, & Buss, 1981, p. 404).

A number of devices were constructed to measure the different subjective components of body consciousness. The most widely used devices are: Body-Self Relations Questionnaire (Butters & Cash, 1987), Body Shape Questionnaire (Cooper, Taylor, & Fairburn, 1987), Body Image Anxiety Scale (Reed, & Thompson, 1990), Body Esteem Scale (Mendelson & White, 1982), Self Consciousness Inventory (Fenigstein, Scheier, & Buss, 1975), and Body Consciousness Questionnaire (Miller, Murphy, & Buss, 1981). Out of these, Body Consciousness Questionnaire (BCQ) measures the private and public aspects of the body in neutral (non-affective) states. Although a great number of studies were conducted on clinical populations for determining the level of body consciousness, few studies were conducted to examine the universality of such a concept. Examination of such a concept requires validation of the construct in diverse cultures, as envisaged by the authors of BCQ.

The aim of the present study was to (a) adapt BCQ into Persian and Japanese languages, and (b) ascertain the level of body consciousness in samples drawn from Iran (West Asia) and Japan (East Asia). The degree to which a person's identity is defined by personal achievement and personal preferences, or, on the other hand, by the imperative of maintaining the profile of the community to which the individual belongs. Since body consciousness is greatly influenced by the social norms, it would be interesting to see whether such consciousness is more prevalent in individualistic (as in U.S.A., see Miller, Murphy, & Buss, 1981) or collectivist societies like Iran or Japan. METHOD

Subjects and procedure

Altogether 170 subjects were considered in the process of adaptation and cross-cultural validation of BCQ (Iran: N=85, male 45, female 40, M age 27.0 yr, SD 5.48 yr, M education 12.0 yr of academic study, SD 2.03; Japan: N=85, male 47, female 38, M age 28.1 yr, SD 5.1, M education 13.5 yr of academic study, SD 1.87). All subjects volunteered during the different stages in the study and none of them had a history of psychiatric illness. These subjects were selected from a relatively heterogenous population in the respective countries.

The original BCQ was translated into Persian and Japanese languages by the language experts. These translated equivalents of BCQ were submitted to bilingual experts (N=10, each in Iran and Japan) to examine the purpose, goal, and concept of the original questionnaire. Special attention was paid to true psychological meaningfulness and wording of each item in the questionnaire. The items which did not carry the psychological meaning were changed. Due attention was also paid to cultural-specific items in the translated equivalents of BCQ.

After obtaining a satisfactory version of translated equivalents for BCQ-Persian (BCQ-P) and BCQ-Japanese (BCQ-J), these questionnaires were back-translated into English. An identical procedure was followed for obtaining the back-translated equivalents. The translation equivalents (BCQ-P to English, BCQ-J to English) were submitted to bilingual experts to assess the purpose, goal, and concepts of the questionnaire. For reliability purposes (test-retest), the translated equivalents were administered to 25 subjects in each culture. Following the development of the questionnaires (BCQ-P, BCQ-J), a group of 50 subjects were administered these for their judgment. RESULTS

Mean judgment for the items of BCQ-P and BCQ-J are given in Table 1. The correlation between the BCQ-P (Body Consciousness Questionnaire - Persian) and the original English version of BCQ was significant (Pearsons's r = .79; Kendall's tau = .83; p <.001 ) in the bilingual sample (English - Persian. The correlation between the original English version of BCQ and back-translated English from the Persian version was (Pearson's = r) .73. Test-retest reliability of BCQ-P was (Pearson's r) was .64. Principal Component Factor Analysis was done of the BCQ-P items (15 x 15 inter-correlation matrix) with Varimax rotation. The analysis yielded a three factorial structure with eigenvalue set at 1.50. Factor I (% variance = 19.3, eigenvalue 2.89) had high loadings on the items 6, 10, 11, 14, 15; Factor II (% variance = 13.6, eigenvalue 2.03) had high loadings on the items 3, 4, 13; and items 1, 7, 8, 9 were loaded highly on Factor III (% variance = 12.7, eigenvalue 1.90), See Table 2. Three items (2, 5, 12) were found redundant (for items see Table 1).

The correlation between the BCQ-J (Body Consciousness Questionnaire - Japanese) and the original English version of BCQ was significant (Pearson's r = .73; Kendall's tau = .76; p<.001) in the bilingual sample (English - Japanese. The correlation between the original English version of BCQ and back-translated English from the Japanese version was (Pearson's r = .69). Test-retest reliability of BCQ-J was (Pearson's r) was .75. Identical Factor Analysis of the BCQ-J also yielded a three factorial structure with the eigenvalue set at 1.50. Factor I (%variance = 24.0; eigenvalue 3.60) had high loadings on the items 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13. Four items (5, 12, 14, 15) were highly loaded on Factor II (% variance 13.9, eigenvalue 2.08). The first two items in the questionnaire were highly loaded on Factor III (% variance = 13.0, eigenvalue 1.95). Two items (3, 4) were found redundant in the analysis, see Table 2 (for items see Table 1).

Because the factor structures of BCQ-P and BCQ-J did differ, a 2 (Groups: Persian, Japanese) x 15 (items) mixed factorial design with repeated measures in the last factor was done. The main effect of Group was significant, F(1,98) = 55.15, p<.001. The main effect of Item was also significant, F(14,1372) = 6.96, p<.001. Since the interaction of Group x Item was significant, F(14,1372) = 5.38, p<.001, the main effects were not discussed. The significant interaction of Group x Item suggested that Iranian subjects who gave responses to BCQ-P (Mean = 2.95) were more body conscious compared to Japanese subjects who gave responses to BCQ-J (Mean = 2.30). The group difference was reflected in their judgments for items 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, and 15, see Fig. 1.

The study suggested that (a) the factorial structure (Factor Analysis) of BCQ-P and BCQ-J were different and (b) the two cultures did differ in their level of body consciousness, as evident from the factorial ANOVA.

With regard to the first finding, it was apparent that the factorial structures of both cultures did not resemble the original factor structure proposed by Miller et al. (1981). Miller and co-associates indicated a three factorial structure of BCQ - private, public and body competence. In the Iranian sample, items belonging to public body consciousness and body competence were loaded highly in he first factor, reflecting the primacy of those items in this culture. Items belonging to public body consciousness were also loaded in Factor 3. Private body consciousness did not emerge as a factor. Two items of BCQ were found redundant in the factorial structure of BCQ-P. Overall the factorial structure suggested that Iranian subjects were more aware of their public body consciousness.

With regard to Japanese sample, the factorial structure of BCQ-J did resemble the Iranian sample. Public consciousness was emerged as the primary factor (Factor 1) in the analysis, followed by body competence (Factor 2) and private body consciousness (Factor 3).

When these two samples (Iran and Japan) were compared for their level of body conscious-ness, Iranian subjects were found to be more conscious (see Fig. 1) as compared to Japanese subjects, especially in the items that reflected public consciousness. Iranian subjects were more conscious for those items which were attached to their social values (for example, items 6, 7, 8, 9) in this respect.

Considering how the cultural orientations of individualism and collectivism can influence the ways in which people view themselves and others, the similarity between the two cultures reveals somewhat a common social structure prevailing in these societies, which are collectivist in norm. In the original questionnaire, private body consciousness was found to be the most important factor (Factor 1). It is probably due to the reason that the subjects on which the questionnaire was developed (U.S.A.) were more individualistic in nature. These findings also substantiate the earlier notions of Triandis (1972, 2000b, 2002), Cole (2005), Miller (2002) and Matsumoto (1990) about the social norms and consciousness prevailing in individualistic and collective societies.

Table 1. Mean judgment of Persian and Japanese versions of BCQ*1, *2, *3

	Persian	Japanese
	M	M
Private Body Consciousness
1. I am sensitive to internal bodily tensions	2.44	2.64
2. I know immediately when my mouth or throat gets dry	3.15	2.6
3. I can often feel my heart beating	2.46	2.04
4. I am quick to sense the hunger contractions of my stomach	3.12	2.94
5. I’m very aware of changes in my body temperature	3.00	2.14
Public Body Consciousness
6. When with others, I want my hands to be clean and look nice	3.32	1.60
7. It’s important for me that my skin looks nice, e.g. has no blemishes	3.50	2.46
8. I am very aware of my best and worst facial features	2.88	2.16
9. I like to make sure that my hair looks right	3.18	2.36
10. I think a lot about my body build	2.72	2.64
11. I’m concerned about my posture	3.32	2.76
Body Competence
12. For my size, I’m pretty strong	2.80	2.34
13. I’m better coordinated than most people	2.92	1.84
14. I’m light on my feet compared to most people	2.66	2.02
15. I’m capable of moving quickly	2.72	2.02

^*1. Item source: Miller, L. C., Murphy, R., & Buss, A. H. (1981). Consciousness of body: private and public. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41, 397-406. American Psychological Association
^*2. The higher the score, the grater the consciousness
^*3. Maximum score = 4, Minimum score = 0

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