Attentional Bias toward differentially rated areas of one's own and other's bodies in men with a body dysmorphic disorder of the muscle dysmorphic subtype

• Applicant: Dr. Manuel Waldorf
• Subject Area: Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology
• Term: from 2014 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 260321960

Muscle Dysmorphia has been added as a specifier to the diagnostic criteria of Body Dysmorphic Disorder in DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Nonetheless, the pathogenic processes of muscularity-oriented body dissatisfaction have not been established yet. In the cognitive-behavioral model of eating disorders by Williamson, White, York-Crowe, and Stewart (2004), an attentional bias for negatively valenced areas of one`s own body and positively valenced areas of other bodies is assumed to play a crucial role in the development and maintenance of body image disorders. To date, such a bias has only been found for women with eating disorders. Therefore, for the first time, the proposed study intends to track eye movements of men with and without symptoms of Muscle Dysmorphia looking at pictures of their own and other`s bodies as an index of attention allocation.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants