Anorexia: Contemporary Study (Guardia 2012)

Question 1

What were the aims of this study?

Answer 1

• To investigate whether distorted perception of body size occurred only when judging one’s own body or whether it was an overall judgement problem
• To investigate whether people with anorexia would be different from a control group in judging whether a gap was large enough for their body to pass through

Question 2

Who were used in the sample?

Answer 2

• 50 female ppts from France with a mean age of 24
• 25 from an ED clinic who had a mean BMI of 15
• 25 healthy controls who had a mean BMI of 22

Question 3

What participant design was used?

Answer 3

Matched pairs on age and education

Question 4

What type of method was used?

Answer 4

Lab

Question 5

Briefly describe the procedure of this contemporary study.

Answer 5

• All ppts carried out a body shape questionnaire 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 6m away from
• Each opening was present 4 times in 2 conditions
• The first condition involved a first person perspective in which they would judge whether their own body could fit through the gap and the second 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
• 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 6

What was the IV and DV?

Answer 6

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

Question 7

What were the results of Guardia’s study?

Answer 7

• 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 8

Describe the conclusion of this study.

Answer 8

• 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 9

Evaluate the generalisablity using a low point.

Answer 9

P - Low
E - A narrow sample of only 50 females from France with a mean age of 24 who were matched on age and education
E - This is not representative of non-European countries and their body perception if they have AN or other ages such as 60+

Question 10

Evaluate the reliability using 2 high points.

Answer 10

P - High
E - Standardised procedure of experimenter always standing 6m from projection of the opening and with measuring BMI, etc
E - This makes the study easy to replicate to test for consistency across cultures
P - High
E - Data such as the perceived critical opening and BMI was quantitative and measurable
E - This makes it more scientific due to being objective and easy to compare

Question 11

Are there any applications?

Answer 11

P - Yes
E - This study found that those with anorexia perceive themselves to be bigger than they are even though they have good perception of others
E - Therefore if we can understand the specific problems that may be causing cognitive symptoms of AN then we may be able to develop treatments for them such as the use of CBT

Question 12

Evaluate validity using 2 high points.

Answer 12

P - High internal
E - Used matched pairs on ANs and controls of age and education
E - This controls for ppt variables that may cause differences in perception knowing that it won’t influence data
P - High
E - All measures were objective due to the perceived critical opening being a ratio and using shoulder width (cm) to compare
E - Quantitative data reduces elements of subjectivity with things like researcher bias

Question 13

Evaluate validity using 2 low points.

Answer 13

P - Low ecological
E - Due to the experiment taking place in an artificial, controlled lab setting whereby the opening was a projection of a door
E - This therefore doesn’t reflect situations in real life in which a ppt would judge their body size
P - Low
E - Control group had a BMI of 22 which is closer to the experimenters 20 than ANs 15
E - This therefore give the control an unfair advantage to perceive correctly due to being closest to the size of the experimenter

Question 14

Evaluate a high and low ethical issue.

Answer 14

P - Unethical
E - Those with AN may have felt distressed when trying to decide if they could fit though a door and thinking they couldn’t
E - This would therefore cause them psychological harm
P - Ethical
E - In the second condition of third person perspective they had to judge whether or not the experimenter could fit through the opening
E - Therefore would be less psychologically distressing