Abstract
The purpose of this study was to find out image types of self which university students wished to present to familiar others and to examine relationships between their self-presentation to these targets and mental health. In the study 1, ninety male students were asked to describe their self-images that they wished to present to familiar others (father, mother, same-sex friend, opposite-sex friend, and teacher). Fifteen different types were detected among the reported self-images. Frequencies of each image type were found to strongly depend on the type of target person. In the study 2, seventy-nine male students were asked to select five types from the 15 images, which they wished best to present to the targets, and to rate the degree of their being successfully presented each image. It was also found that the selection was strongly affected by the type of target person. These findings were explained in terms of Schlenker & Weigold's (1989) self-identification theory. Though most subjects assertively presented themselves in familiar relations, these tendencies correlated with neither the level of self-esteem nor of social anxiety.
