Body dissatisfaction in binge eating disorder: cognitive and affective mechanisms of maintenance

• Applicant: Professorin Jennifer Svaldi, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology
• Term: from 2013 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 232326593

The undue influence of shape and weight on self-evaluation and the corresponding body dissatisfaction are a core feature of binge eating disorder (BED) (Wilfley, Schwartz, Spurrell, & Fairburn, 2000a) and a predictor of poor treatment outcome (Masheb & Grilo, 2008). According to schema-theoretical conceptions (Williamson, White, York-Crowe, & Stewart, 2004), body dissatisfaction represents the negative cognitive and affective connotation of the own body represented in the body schema. Such negative body-related self-schemas can be activated by salient stimuli, e.g., the confrontation with the self or the other body. They are further presumed to selectively influence memory, judgment and attentional processes with regard to body-related issues (Wilson, Fairburn, Agras, Walsh, & Kraemer, 2002). It is further assumed that at the behavioral level such distortions in information processing are presumed to be observable as body checking and avoidance of body-related information, which in turn are thought to contribute to the maintenance and aggravation of the negative body-related schemas. First empirical evidence for the model suggest that women with pronounced eating disorder symptoms are characterized by an increased attention allocation towards the self- compared to the other-body (Blechert, Ansorge, & Tuschen-Caffier, 2010) and by an increased attention allocation towards self-liked compared to self-disliked body parts (Jansen, Nederkoorn, & Mulkens, 2005). Own research confirms these results also for women with BED (Svaldi, Caffier, & Tuschen-Caffier, 2011a, 2011b). However, at this point it is still unclear whether (a) these mechanisms are modifiable, and (b) whether a modification of the described attentional patterns leads to an improvement of body satisfaction. To this end, the current project plans to assess attentional processes when looking at self and other body prior to and after an intervention consisting of repeated mirror exposures, which has previously been shown to be effective in the reduction of body dissatisfaction (Trentowska, Bender, & Tuschen-Caffier, accepted).

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Person: Professorin Dr. Brunna Tuschen-Caffier