Journal
PSYCHOLOGY & HEALTH
Volume 24, Issue 3, Pages 351-366Publisher
TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/08870440701697367
Keywords
body image; attentional bias; eye movements
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The purpose of this study was to examine trait levels of dissatisfaction with specific bodily regions and attentional characteristics associated with those regions among women high (HBD, n = 15) and low (LBD, n = 14) in body dissatisfaction. Separate laboratory visits were completed, during, which eye movements were recorded as participants viewed slides of self-physiques or model-physiques. Comparisons of search tendencies were made across the entire 5 s of slide presentation, and then within each of the ten 500 ms epochs that comprised the 5 s viewing period. The HBD group made initial fixations to the pelvis region proportionately more than the LBD group, and avoided looking at their own bodies relative to the LBD group. They also viewed the model's legs significantly longer than the LBD group. When considering the time course of attentional allocation, the HBD group preferentially viewed areas typical of dissatisfaction during the latter viewing periods, regardless of whether they were looking at themselves or the model. Results are discussed in the context of an integrated social cognitive view with regard to the formation of a negative body schema that both results from and then perpetuates the negative affective consequences that characterize individuals who are symptomatic for eating disorders.
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