Actual and Possible Body-Image Self-Schemas in Young Women with Bulimic Tendencies

To examine whether information about body image is processed and cognitively organized around a self-concept, two experiments analyzed reaction time and memory for 48 young women with bulimic tendencies. Information was self-referencing to body shape vs trait words and information processing of adje...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Perceptual and motor skills 2003-06, Vol.96 (3_suppl), p.1123-1132
Main Author: Girodo, Michel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Affect
Body Image
Bulimia
Bulimia - epidemiology
Bulimia - psychology
Female
Humans
Memory
Random Allocation
Reaction Time
Self Concept
Self image
Semantics
Somatoform Disorders - epidemiology
Vocabulary
Women
Young adults
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Summary:To examine whether information about body image is processed and cognitively organized around a self-concept, two experiments analyzed reaction time and memory for 48 young women with bulimic tendencies. Information was self-referencing to body shape vs trait words and information processing of adjectives referenced to “I dream of” and “I am afraid of” facets of self. Bulimic subjects encoded “fat” adjectives faster when these words were referenced to the present self. Reaction times were also faster to both “thin” and “fat” adjectives when these words were self-referenced to an “I dream of” and to an “I am afraid of” self, respectively. Processing of body-image information depended on which facet of self was activated rather than on the denotative meaning of the stimulus words. Memory for thin and fat adjectives was not related to preoccupation with body image or to which facet of the self was invoked. Findings suggest that an actual body-image schema and a possible body-image schema could coexist for bulimic persons. Such coexistence is necessary for a theory which posits knowledge structures might be dynamically related.
ISSN:0031-5125
1558-688X
DOI:10.2466/pms.2003.96.3c.1123