Body image and asymmetry of body reactivity.

The hypothesis tested was that the more definitely one distinguishes the right and left sides of his body in his body image, the more likely he is to show differential reactivity in the left vs. right sides of his body. Ss compared homologous body parts while viewing them through aniseikonic lenses to determine body-image differentiation. Body reactivity was determined by means of GSR recordings. Right handed Ss who clearly distinguished their right and left body sides were likely to show a GSR gradient showing the left side to be more reactive than the right. 21 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Body image boundaries and patterns of body perception.

4 studies were undertaken to test hypotheses concerning the relationship of the definitness of the body image boundary to patterns of sensation from exterior and interior body regions. The measure of boundary definiteness utilized was the barrier score which is derived from responses to inkblots. It was found that the more definite an S's body image boundary the more likely he is to assign prominence to body exterior as compared to body interior sensations. This was demonstrated in terms of reports of current and past body sensations and also partially in terms of reactions to placebo. Selective recall for verbal material referring to exterior and interior sensations was also found to be related to degree of boundary definiteness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Head-body differentiations in body image and skin resistance level.

"The data support the hypothesis that different levels of reactivity in given body sectors are linked with corresponding differences in body image attitudes toward such sectors. Thus, when the head area was perceived as having large magnitude with reference to the body, it was characterized by relatively lower skin resistance (indicating greater reactivity) than that of the nonhead area… . These findings are congruent with previously reported correlations between body image boundary definiteness and body interior vs. body exterior reactivity… body image attitudes towards a given body sector may play a causative role in the level of reactivity of that sector." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Exploring a model of intuitive eating with college women.

Intuitive eating (i.e., eating based on physiological hunger and satiety cues rather than situational and emotional cues) recently has gained recognition as an adaptive eating style. The present study explored a model of intuitive eating based on a foundation of acceptance with 2 samples of college women. Path analysis with the 1st sample (N = 181) revealed that the acceptance model provided an excellent fit to the data, and latent variable structural equation modeling with the 2nd sample (N = 416) cross-validated this model. Specifically, general unconditional acceptance predicted body acceptance by others, body acceptance by others predicted an emphasis on body function over appearance, body acceptance by others and an emphasis on body function predicted body appreciation, and an emphasis on body function and body appreciation predicted intuitive eating. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Body Image Among Adolescent Girls and Boys: A Longitudinal Study.

This longitudinal study of adolescent girls and boys examined the contributions of social (peer appearance context), psychological (internalized appearance ideals and appearance social comparison), and biological (body mass) factors to the development of body dissatisfaction. Students (165 girls and 139 boys) completed questionnaires when they were either in 7th grade or 10th grade and again 1 year later. The results for the boys revealed a singular pathway to body dissatisfaction through internalized commitment to muscularity ideals. The prospective analyses of change in body dissatisfaction among the girls reflected the contributions of appearance conversations with friends, appearance social comparisons, and body mass. There was no evidence of mediation among the boys and limited support for it among the girls. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Turning configural processing upside down: Part and whole body postures.

Like faces, body postures are susceptible to an inversion effect in untrained viewers. The inversion effect may be indicative of configural processing, but what kind of configural processing is used for the recognition of body postures must be specified. The information available in the body stimulus was manipulated. The presence and magnitude of inversion effects were compared for body parts, scrambled bodies, and body halves relative to whole bodies and to corresponding conditions for faces and houses. Results suggest that configural body posture recognition relies on the structural hierarchy of body parts, not the parts themselves or a complete template match. Configural recognition of body postures based on information about the structural hierarchy of parts defines an important point on the configural processing continuum, between recognition based on first-order spatial relations and recognition based on holistic undifferentiated template matching. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lived body and fantasmatic body: The debate between phenomenology and psychoanalysis.

Neither the lived body, taken up by Merleau-Ponty after Husserl, nor the libidinal body theorised by psychanalysts after Freud, can be reduced to the counted, measured, physical body, apprehended only from outside. Both phenomenology and psychoanalysis set forth the priority of a global subjective lived body, approached "from within". However, their perspectives seem to differ when it comes to the conception of the interiority of this lived body, which psychoanalysis deems as imaginary. This paper examines the similarities and discrepancies between the Merleau-Pontyan phenomenological body and the Freudian erogenous body. It attempts to show how the very categories of perception and imagination are reversed when moving from one discipline to the other. It concludes by proposing some lines along which the comparison could be prolonged. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Body Image Concerns of Gay Men: The Roles of Minority Stress and Conformity to Masculine Norms.

The authors hypothesized that gay men's experiences of minority stress and their conformity to masculine norms would be associated with increased body image dissatisfaction and masculine body ideal distress. For this cross-sectional study, 357 gay males completed a Web-based survey, and 2 multiple regression analyses indicated that minority stress factors (i.e., internalized homophobia, expected stigma for being gay, and experiences of physical attack) were associated with body image dissatisfaction and masculine body ideal distress, accounting for 5% and 13% of the variance, respectively. Gay men's conformity to masculine norms was not associated with body image dissatisfaction but did uniquely explain an additional 3% of variance in masculine body ideal distress scores. The utility of the minority stress model, how traditional masculinity may contribute to gender-related presenting concerns, suggestions for developing and evaluating remedial and preventive interventions, limitations, and future research issues are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Body-image boundaries and style of life.

Rorschach protocols, previously found to contain the richest data concerning body-image boundaries were scored for two variables represented by a Barrier score and a Penetration of the Boundary score. "It would appear that those who emphasize the armoring qualities of their body boundaries differ from those who do not in a greater interest in muscular expression, higher aspiration, a greater frequency of physical complaints involving the exterior layers of the body, and a tendency to perceive others as concealing their true intentions behind a deceptive facade." 29 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Women's body satisfaction at midlife and lifetime body size: A prospective study.

The relationship between past body size and current body dissatisfaction among 933 middle-aged women from a prospective birth cohort study was examined. Women provided self-report data on weight esteem at age 54. Height and weight data were collected at ages 7, 11, 15, 20, 26, 36, 43, and 54. Data on reproductive variables were also collected prospectively. Hierarchical linear modeling and multiple regression analyses were used. Women who were dissatisfied at midlife were heavier at age 7 and showed a more rapid increase in body mass index with age. A late menarche, being postmenopausal, and having started hormone replacement therapy before menopause were associated with less dissatisfaction. Attention to these factors across the life span is necessary to understand body dissatisfaction in women at midlife. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Moderators of the body dissatisfaction-eating disorder symptomatology relationship: Replication and extension.

In this study, research conducted by T. L. Tylka (2004) was replicated and extended by examining perfectionism (self-oriented and socially prescribed), ego goal orientation, body surveillance, and neuroticism as moderators of the relationship between body dissatisfaction and bulimic and anorexic symptomatology among female undergraduates (N = 398). Hierarchical moderated regression was used to test the main and interactive effects of the models and to control for physical size and social desirability. As expected, body dissatisfaction was strongly related to the measures of disordered eating, accounting for 16% to 26% of the variance. Two variables (neuroticism and body surveillance) received support as moderators of the relationships between body dissatisfaction and bulimic and anorexic symptoms. Ego goal orientation and socially prescribed perfectionism moderated the effects of body dissatisfaction on bulimic symptoms, whereas self-oriented perfectionism served as a moderator only for anorexic symptoms. In all instances, higher levels of body dissatisfaction paired with higher levels of the moderator were associated with more disturbed eating. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development and structure of the body image, Volumes 1 and 2.

Volume 1 consists entirely of an updated review of the body image literature, particularly work reported since Fisher's 1970 review. Most of these studies were carried out by investigators other then Fisher himself. He reserves presentation of his own recent research for the second volume. Volume 2 contains two parts. The first 200-plus pages describe Fisher's theory of the body boundary in considerable detail. The remainder describes new research findings regarding the body-landmark signal system and the significance of variations in the prominence of body experience. Several appendixes describe the coding criteria for body image Barrier and Penetration scores, the Body Focus Questionnaire, and the Body Prominence technique. The 150-page Bibliography and the Author and Subject Indexes are quite thorough and helpful. Fisher uses Volume 2 to elaborate empirically and theoretically two postulates that appeared in his earlier writings. The first postulate is that some persons view their body as being sharply bounded while others are less well differentiated from their environments. The second holds hat people distribute attention differentially to specific body parts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The masculinity-femininity dimension in normal and psychotic subjects.

A research was designed to test hypotheses derived from psychoanalytic theory that psychotic and normal women differ in their responses to measures of different levels of masculinity organization. "On the DC (Drawing Completion Test), the psychotic women obtain more masculine scores than do normals. However, using the DAP (Draw-A-Person Test) as a measure of body image, only two of four measures yielded significant differences, and these did not hold up on cross-validation. The verbal statements of normal women concerning masculinity-femininity status correspond more closely to their respective measures of body image status than do those of psychotic women." Theoretical implications of findings and areas for future research are discussed. 22 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Body sensation and perception of projective stimuli.

2 studies were carried out to test the general hypothesis that body experience may influence responses to projective stimuli. Specifically, it was proposed that the more aware an individual is of his stomach the more frequently he will produce stomach-related themes (e.g., nutritive) when imaginatively elaborating inkblots. Stomach awareness was measured by means of a technique which involves comparing the prominence of one's own stomach with a series of other paired body sectors. Studies 1 and 2 involved 102 and 93 Ss, respectively. In both instances there was significant support for the hypothesis. The findings suggest that body experiences may play a meaningful role in the individual's response to various types of unstructured stimuli. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Mind regained.

Reviews the book, Mind regained by Edward Pols (see record 1998-06466-000). In this text, Pols seeks to treat the difficult and perplexing question of the relationship between mind and body in a way that is nonetheless accessible to the non-professional philosopher. Pols takes issues with the position of many contemporary philosophers and psychologists that the brain provides the ultimate causal explanation of mind. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Body-cathexis and the ideal female figure.

"Significant correlations were found between measured (and estimated) size of selected aspects of the female body, and cathexis for those parts. The mean self-rated ideal size for weight, waist, and hips was significantly smaller than the mean measured (and estimated) size of these parts, while the ideal bust measurement was larger than the obtained average bust measurement. Cathexis ratings for five body parts were found to vary with the extent of deviation of measured (and estimated) size from self-rated ideal size." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The developmental and cultural contexts of objectified body consciousness: A longitudinal analysis of two cohorts of women.

Longitudinal analysis of 10-year follow-up data on objectified body consciousness, body esteem, weight-related attitudes and behaviors, and psychological well-being in 74 middle-aged and 72 young women tested hypotheses developed from age-related change and cohort differences models of body experience. Young women's body surveillance and body shame decreased, and their body esteem increased, supporting an age-related changes model. Relationships between variables were relatively consistent with the 2 cohorts across data waves, supporting a cohort differences model, although nonoverlapping cohorts limit the interpretation of the data. The importance of developmental context in understanding women's body experience is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of body and hand cooling on complex manual performance.

12 U.S. Army enlisted men were tested on 3 manual tasks (knot-tying, block-stringing, and block-packing) under 1 control and 3 experimental conditions involving Cold Hand and/or Cold Body temperatures. The 3 cooling conditions had a differential effect across the 3 tasks. Cold Body was the only condition that did not result in significant decrements for all tasks. Knot-tying was unaffected by body cooling. The results were interpreted in terms of the differential effect of cooling the hand or body on various aspects of complex manual performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Changes in body image following sensory deprivation in schizophrenic and control groups.

This study concerns body image changes in schizophrenic and nonpsychotic groups following a sensory deprivation experience. 20 schizophrenics and 20 nonpsychotics were examined before and after a sensory deprivation period with a test battery assessing various aspects of body image. A control group of 20 schizophrenics was similarly tested and retested but with no period of sensory deprivation intervening. This latter group showed no change in any of the body image measures pre- to posttesting. However, the 2 experimental groups demonstrated a number of changes in body image following sensory deprivation, with schizophrenics evidencing a degree of reintegration and nonpsychotics more disintegration in body image. (19 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some physiological correlates of Rorschach body image productions.

"The relationship between surface characteristics of Rorschach responses and physiological measures was investigated in order to test the hypothesis that the projected perception of one's body is related to the patterning of physiological responses… . Physiological indices related to bodily exterior (muscle potential, skin resistance, cardiovascular peripheral resistance) and bodily interior (pulse rate, stroke volume, cardiac output) physiological responsivity were abstracted… . The results indicate that the tendency to give impermeable or protective characteristics to Rorschach percepts is related to heightened physiological reactivity at an exterior body site and that the absence… is related to the heightened physiological response on interior indices… under stress." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)