Schema corporeo, immagine corporea e physical self-concept

Initially, the study of bodily experience examined the concept of body schema from a neurophysiologic standpoint. Afterwards, researchers shifted the interest onto body image in a wider perspective belonging to psychological area. During the development of the investigations, various meanings have been attributed to the two concepts. This constitutes a source of confusion in the literature. In recent decades, a considerable number of research studies examined the problem in terms of physical self-concept. The results have contributed to widen significantly the knowledge on the argument. In this framework, the multidimensional hierarchical models of physical self-concept show a marked improvement in explicative capacity, and appear to favor the possibility of decreasing the ambiguities.