背景:许多年轻女性对自己的身体不满意。这项研究调查了新开发的评估条件程序对当前身体不满水平的影响,该程序将自我相似和自我不同的身体图像与积极和中性的情感图像配对,分别。我们假设学习自相似体预测积极情感的偶然性是一个可以帮助解释这些程序如何发挥作用的过程。
方法:没有饮食紊乱病理的成年女性参加了一项在线实验,随机分配给干预或控制条件。所有参与者最初对身体图像进行自相似性评级,随后被要求尽快准确地对阳性和中性图像进行分类。在干预条件下,自我相似的身体系统地先于正面图像,自相似图像先于中性图像,创造一个相似的身体→积极的偶然性。在控制条件下的配对是不系统的,因此不存在任何意外情况。我们测量了分类延迟和准确性,以推断偶然性学习以及接触配对前后的当前身体不满。所有参与者在基线时进一步完成了对特质身体形象关注和饮食紊乱心理病理学的测量,我们将其作为条件分配之间的预期关系的主持人进行了研究,应急学习,和身体不满的改善。
结果:我们分析了符合纳入标准的N=173名女性的数据。适度的调解分析表明,分配给干预(vs.控制)条件预测增加相似体→正应变学习,这反过来又预测了干预后身体不满的改善,但仅限于具有较高预先存在的身体形象特征或饮食水平紊乱的女性。
结论:这些发现指向进一步探索配对程序的效用的相关性。相似的身体→积极的偶然性学习预测了具有正常较高身体形象关注的个体的身体不满改善,这表明配对程序可以帮助为未来减少身体不满的研究提供信息。
许多人对自己的身体看起来如何或体重不满意。身体不满会增加患饮食失调的风险。这项研究测试了一种减少女性身体不满的方法。该方法包括将被判断为与自己的身体相似的身体的照片与正面照片配对。对于一半的研究参与者来说,我们安排了配对,这样人们就可以系统地了解到类似的身体照片和正面照片是一起的。与另一半偶然出现配对的研究参与者相比,我们发现,研究参与者确实了解到,类似的身体照片和正面照片是结合在一起的。此外,这种学习使通常对自己的身体不满意或报告饮食紊乱症状的参与者在手术后立即对自己的身体更加满意。这些发现表明,该方法可以进一步发展,调查,用于治疗或预防饮食失调。
BACKGROUND: Many young women are dissatisfied with their bodies. This study investigated the effect on current body dissatisfaction levels of a newly developed evaluative conditioning procedure that paired self-similar and self-dissimilar images of bodies with positive and neutral affective images, respectively. We hypothesized that learning the contingency that self-similar bodies predict positive affectivity is one process that could aid in explaining how these procedures function.
METHODS: Adult women without disordered eating pathology participated in an online experiment with random assignment to an intervention or a control condition. All participants initially rated body images in self-similarity and were subsequently asked to categorize positive and neutral images by valence as quickly and accurately as possible. In the intervention condition, self-similar bodies systematically preceded positive images, and self-dissimilar images preceded neutral images, creating a similar body → positive contingency. Pairings in the control condition were unsystematic such that no contingency was present. We measured categorization latencies and accuracies to infer contingency learning as well as current body dissatisfaction immediately before and after exposure to the pairings. All participants further completed measures of trait body image concerns and disordered eating psychopathology at baseline, which we examined as moderators of an expected relation between condition assignment, contingency learning, and body dissatisfaction improvements.
RESULTS: We analyzed data from N = 173 women fulfilling the inclusion criteria. Moderated mediation analyses showed that assignment to the intervention (vs. control) condition predicted increased similar body → positive contingency learning, which in turn predicted improved body dissatisfaction post-intervention, but only among women with higher pre-existing trait body image concerns or disordered eating levels.
CONCLUSIONS: The findings point toward the relevancy of further exploring the utility of pairing procedures. Similar body → positive contingency learning predicted improved body dissatisfaction in individuals with normatively high body image concerns, which suggests pairing procedures could help inform future research on reducing body dissatisfaction.
Many people are dissatisfied with how their bodies look or how much they weigh. Body dissatisfaction can increase the risk of developing an eating disorder. This study tested a method for reducing body dissatisfaction among women. The method included pairing pictures of bodies judged as similar to one’s own body with positive pictures. For one half of the study participants, we arranged the pairings in a way that one could systematically learn that similar body pictures and positive pictures go together. Compared to the other half of study participants who were shown pairings by chance, we found that study participants indeed learned that similar body pictures and positive pictures go together. Moreover, this learning made participants who were generally dissatisfied with their bodies or who reported disordered eating symptoms more satisfied with their bodies immediately after the procedure. These findings suggest that the method could be further developed, investigated, and used in treating or preventing eating disorders.