guardia Flashcards
what is the aim?
continue previous research by the same team that had found that patients with AN found it difficult to gauge their own body size and misjudged their ability to fit through a door frame
who were the ppts?
25 female patients from a clinic for eating disorders from france who had AN and 25 healthy female controls who were students
- each group was matched for age and level of education
what was the procedure?
a door frame shape was projected onto a wall to give the illusion of an opening thta the ppts could walk through
- 51 different width shapes were projected onto the walls varying from 30-80cm
- the projections were presented 4 times to each ppts and each ppt was asked to predict if they could walk through each frame
- they were then asked whether another female researcher standing in the room could fit through the frame (she had similar BMI and shoulder width to the control group)
what were the findings?
the group of ppts with AN showed a significant overestimation of body size in themselves, judging that they would be unable to fit through door frames that were considerably bigger than them.
- but they were much more accurate in predicting the body size of the other person
- there was a correlation between the passability and their pre-illness body weight
what was the conclusion?
the ppts have not adapted their internal body image to take into account their new body size after developing the disorder
- they suggest that the brain still perceives the body to be a larger size despite visual information that would contradict this.
- a person who had lost weight in the 6 months before the study showed a greater difference between their own and the other person’s passability.
what is a weakness?
the sample is very limited - only 25 females from france
- this means the study is ando and ethnocentric which means it is not generalisability
however, the majority of sufferers are young girls
what is a weakness about the third person question?
the third person had a body size more closely matched to the control than the ppts which meant the control may have been able to estimate
- however, the researchers said that the third person would need to have AN as well which raised ethical concerns
what is the validity weakness?
making a visual judgement of a person’s ability to pass through a virtual door frame is different to actually attempting to walk through the projected shape.
- a better test may be to project the frame and then observe the ppts approach to the opening to see whether they can wlak through it or if they turn around.
what is a strength?
the study has high reliability because of the standerdised procedure of experimenter always standing 6m from projection of the opening which makes it easy to replicate for consistency across cultures
