5.1.4 AN Contemp- Guardia et al (2012)

Question 1

Aims?

Answer 1

• To investigate whether problems in judging body actions occured only when judging ow n body, or if it was overall judgement problems.
• Would those w AN be diff from controls in judging whether a gap was large enough for their body to pass through
• Continue prev research which showed AN patients misjudged their ability to fit through a door (door clearly too big) by also testingwhether this porblem occured for others- would they also misjudge the body size of others.

Question 2

Sample?

Answer 2

• 50 young fem pps
• Mean avg 24
• French (Lille, France)
• 25 w AN from clinic, mean BMI (15)
• ## 25 healthy controls, mean BMI (18.5-25)

Question 3

Method + Pp design?

Answer 3

• Lab
  -Matched pairs for education and age

Answer 4

• All ppts carried out a body shape questionnaire (asked to rate their body on a scale of 1-10) prior to the experiment in which AN patients scored 123 and controls scored 66
• All ppts were measured on height, shoulder width (ANs having avg 37cm and controls having 41cm), BMI and it was all standardised
• They measured changes over time by looking at BMI before the disorder, 6 months before the study and at the time of the study
• There were 51 different door openings ranging from 30-80cm that were projected in a random order in which ppts had to stand 5.9m away from
  Each opening was presented 4 times in 2 conditions
  1. (1PP) involved a first person perspective in which they would judge whether their own body could fit through the gap 2. (3PP) was a third person perspective in which they judged whether the experimenter’s body would fit through the opening
• The shoulder width of the experimenter was 38cm and they had a BMI of 20(experimenter body shape similar to controls)
  The perceived critical opening was a space in which the person thought they could walk through 50% of the time
  When the perceived critical opening was 1 it was equal to shoulder width and so could not pass through, if it was higher you could and lower you could not

Question 5

IV + DV?

Answer 5

IV = opening of the projected door
DV = perceived critical opening of the individual

Question 6

Results?

Answer 6

ANs showed significant overestimation of their body size
In 1PP there was a significant difference in perceptual ratio of ANs (at 1.321) than control (at 1.106)
In the 3PP condition the difference was only 0.09 between scores of ANs and controls which was not significant
There was a significant difference between scores for 1PP and 3PP for ANs whereas there was not for controls
Those who had lost weight 6 months prior to study showed the greatest difference in body perception

Question 7

Conclusions?

Answer 7

Those with AN significantly overestimate their body size
ANs were better at perceiving the critical opening for the experimenter than their own showing no general perceptual issues
Losing weight did not adapt their internal body image and instead their brains still perceived their bodies to be larger than they were

Question 8

GRAVE- Generalisibility

Answer 8

P- Low
E- 55 fem pps
E- Gynocentricism, w as is doesnt represent general demographic of anorexia sufferers as the numbers of AN is growing in the male population. Can’t appy findings back to male AN sufferers.

P- High
E- 55 fem pps
E- S, AN predominantly developed by women, data can be applied back to fem population of AN sufferers, representative of how body image is perceived by female AN sufferers

P- Low
E- From Lille, France
E- W, ethnocentric, France is a western culture so may value body image of thiness more than other non-western cultures that value plumpness. Therefore data can’t be applied back to world-wide population

P- High
E- AN is a western disorder/ culture bound syndrome
E- S, Representative of the culture of France/ western society that experiences AN and symtpoms of disordered body image.

Question 9

GRAVE-R

Answer 9

P Standardised
E- Door had 51 openings betwee n 30-80cm width and was a projection with each opening shown 4 times. Experimenter stood 5.9m away from projection.
E- S, procedure is standardised and can be used by other researchers when studying distorted body image and AN

Question 10

GRAVE-A

Answer 10

P- Yes
E- Found that AN sufferers body perception changed for 1PP but not for 3PP
E- So treatment should be focused on individual’s body image perception and bettering this, eg incr their self esteem to create better body image perception

Question 11

GRAVE-V

Answer 11

P- Task is artificial
E- 3 person perspective, being asked to make a judgement as to whether the pps (1pp) could fit through a gap in the door, and then from a third POV of seeing if experimenter can fit through door
E- W, low mundane realism. Does reflect the AN sufferers genuine body perception due to unusualness of task as its not reflective of their everyday lives and judgement of their body image, decr V

P- High
E- Door was a projection from floor to wall
E- S,high eco V. Their judgement of whether or not they could fit through a door may be more accurate regarding the influence of their AN as the door was accurate to one in everyday life and fit with their real life perception of a door.

P- High
E- body scale perception
E- S, triangulation, judgement of door opening as well as questionnaire creates a well rounded data for AN sufferers perception of their body image

P- Low
E- Questionnaire is self report data
E- Low, those w AN are aware that their cognition of body image is distorted so they may’ve lied to appear less affected by AN on their body image perception due to social desirability bias.

Question 12

GRAVE-E

Answer 12

P- Poor
E- Body scale questionnaire, asked them to rate their body on scale from 1-10 and make a judgement of how well they ca fit into ‘smaller spaces’
E- W, may worsen their body image and cause further problems/ worsening of their AN therefore is devoid of ‘protection from harm’