Scientific Network: Body Exposure – Attention Modification (BEAM)

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Andrea Hartmann Firnkorn
• Subject Area: Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology
• Term: from 2018 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 419333230

The goal of the Network "Body Exposure – Attention Modification" (BEAM) applied for in this proposal is to bring together work groups that hold a research focus in the area of basics, mechanisms of action, and effects of body exposure and other interventions to modify body-related attention processes in eating disorders. The area focused upon by the BEAM-Network is of great scientific and clinical relevance. While a body image disturbance is a central factor for the development and maintenance of diverse eating disorders, direct interventions to improve body image have received little attention both in research and routine care. The BEAM-Network will consist of five researchers working in the area of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy. One main aim of the network is to develop joint new innovative research ideas. To enable such development, on the one hand, cooperation among network members as well as the coordination and systematization of their research endeavors will be fostered. On the other hand, international researchers invited to the network meetings will engage in transdiagnostic exchange across the field of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy and beyond, including neighboring psychological disciplines, therewith stimulating research ideas, e.g. by providing methodological input, and achieving even wider international collaborations. Besides the examination of basics, mechanisms of action, differential effectiveness, the development of indication criteria, and the identification of predictors of effectiveness, the second main aim of the BEAM-Network is to support the dissemination of the method. Therefore, a platform is established on which research findings regarding body exposure and modification of body-related attention processes and their implications will be made available to practitioners. In consequence, a better transfer from research to routine care will be achieved that, eventually, patients will benefit from.

• DFG Programme: Scientific Networks
• Co-Investigator: Dr. Jessica Werthmann