A Self-Image Inventory: Its Theoretical Background,Reliability and Validity*

Wylie (1974) points out that there is a lack of adequate theoretical development in the investigation of the self-concept. The result is a proliferation of operational definitions with no clear understanding of the relationship between operations, between constructs, and between the constructs and their operationalizations. In this article we make explicit the theoretical component of self to which this Self-image Inventory relates. The article presents the inventory and twenty years of research experience with it. The inventory is found to be both reliable and valid for measuring the self-image as a role specific component of self.