This doctoral dissertation examine the specific role of the self-concept and of its different dimensions on the evolution of anorexic symptoms over a period of 140 consecutive days. in two different samples comprising 26 anorexic outpatients and inpatients and in 23 girls without eating disorders (ED). By applying an idiographic approach, the main results show that the level, instability and dynamic of self-concept dimensions, and more precisely of body attractiveness, represent potent predictors of psychological, behavioral (e.g. full score of Eating Disorders Inventory-Adolescent, EDI-A-24) and somatic (e.g. Body Mass Index, BMI) anorexic symptoms over medium (i.e. over a few months), short (i.e. over a few weeks) and very short (i.e. over a few days) periods of time. Moreover, multivariate regression analyses further show that the pattern of association between anorexic symptoms and self concept dimensions remains the same in both samples (anorexic and without ED). Moreover, the results of cross-correlations analyses reveal that anorexic symptoms are as unstable as the dimensions of self-concept, with which they appear to be intertwined. More precisely, body attractiveness, most often a) precedes the drive for thinness, b) is associated to bulimia according to a"vicious circle" phenomenon, and c) fluctuates with according to body dissatisfaction. However body attractiveness was not found to relate to anorexic girls final status at the end of the follow-up period (e.g. deterioration, improvement, stabilization, etc). Finally, the results from a qualitative analysis suggest that social events experienced as positive contribute to the improvement of anorexia nervosa.This appears to be explained by the potential of these events to break through anorectic girls known ego-centered tendencies. Taken as a whole, the 'results highlight the necessity of considering overall of dimensions of self-esteem and the"profiles" of girls with and without ED in preventive and therapeutic interventions for ED.

Physical attractiveness plays an important role in many aspects of our lives. The aim of this study is to reveal what is the correlation between rating of physical attractiveness made by oneself and by others, and personal grooming. The relation between self-rating of overall physical attractiveness and its rating made by others (using photographs) and connection between these ratings and personal grooming were examined on the basis of a heterogeneous sample of 43 women and 32 men. These ratings of overall attractiveness, face attractiveness and body attractiveness were provided by 34 judges (each time 17 males and 17 females) different for every variable. Our results showed a positive relation between participant's self-rating of overall physical attractiveness and its rating made by others. Further analyses proved that rating of overall physical attractiveness was positively associated both with facial and body attractiveness for both sexes. With regard to women, a correlation between self-rating of physical attractiveness and reduced care of body shape and eyebrow was revealed; regarding men, self-rating correlated with reduced care of body shape, hair, fingernails and less care for outfit was shown. Concerning female participants, no relation between rating of overall physical attractiveness...