Week 16 - Body Image Flashcards
What is body image?
Perceptions and attitudes in relation to one’s own physical characteristics
How does the Tripartite model (Thompson et al., 2002) explain body satisfaction levels?
3 influencing factors - media, peers and family
All three combine to create two mechanisms that inform us on how we feel about our body
What are the two mechanisms that come from the Tripartite Model (Thompson et al., 2002)?
Social comparison - how we compare ourselves to others perceptions
The degree of internalisation of media/family/peers messages
What is CASH’s model of body dissatisfaction? (Thomas Cash, 2011)?
Cognitive-Behavioural Model of Body Dissatisfaction
Event -> thought -> Emotion -> 1 of 3 behaviours: Experiential avoidance, appearance fixing, positive rational acceptance
What is the leading prevention programme for eating disorders in the UK?
Body Project Collaborative
What is mindfulness?
Paying attention in a particular way; on purpose, in the present moment and nonjudgmentally
What are 2 factors involved in mindfulness?
Attentional capacity - choosing focus and being able to control focus shift
Quality of the attention - non-judgmental and non-reactive actions towards the thoughts just accepting them as they are
What are cognitive and emotional non-reactivity in mindfulness?
Cognitive - stops you from reacting to thoughts
Emotion - allows you to see that anxiety etc. Is the interplay between thought and physical reaction
What do cognitive and emotional non–reactivity lead to?
‘Choice point”
How does mindfulness help body dissatisfaction?
Interrupts mental habit and increases distress tolerance
How does interrupting mental habit help body dissatisfaction?
Negative body image thinking is a mental habit.
Mindfulness interrupts the thought/emotion process in CASH’s model and brings awareness and reduces cognitive non-reactivity to the habitual thought
How does increasing distress tolerance help body dissatisfaction?
Most reactions are in response to difficult emotions and sensations.
Mindfulness encourages you to allows distress sensations to be resent and to not interact with them.
Distress tolerance relates to emotion in CASH - reduces emotional reactivity
What are some mindfulness exercises for body dissatisfaction?
Mindful mirror exposure
Cognitive diffusion - Milk exercise
Is body dissatisfaction itself a problem?
Mancuso (2016) suggested that thoughts of body dissatisfaction weren’t the problem but rather the body image inflexibility and being sucked into thoughts and not merely accepting them
