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Eating disorders can be viewed on a continuum, with disordered eating not reaching clinical diagnostic criteria but having potentially negative effects including increasing the risk of an eating disorder or obesity. This study investigated disordered eating in relation to emotional processing from an Acceptance and Commitment (ACT) perspective. Body image dissatisfaction is recognised as a risk factor in eating disorders and was therefore included in this study to investigate whether the ACT concept of inflexibility was associated with ‘less acceptance’ of body image and an increased eating disorder risk as well as general mood disturbance (i.e. depression and anxiety). A non-clinical sample of 96, 12-15 year old females at secondary schools in London was used. Eating disorder risk, inflexibility as well as depression and anxiety were measured. When comparing high, low and moderate eating disorder risk groups it was found that the low and moderate eating disorder risk groups had lower levels of inflexibility and the low eating disorder risk group had a higher body image acceptance than the moderate and the high risk groups as predicted. Inflexibility was also associated with higher rates of anxiety and depression and a negative association was found between depression and anxiety in relation to acceptance of body image. Thus providing supporting evidence for the transdiagnostic significance of ‘inflexibility’. Clinical implications of these findings in relation to prevention and treatment are discussed.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) seropositive men on highly active antiretroviral therapy treatment (HAART) who experience lipodystrophy syndrome (LD), a side effect of HAART, rate themselves as more depressed than those who did not experience LD(Crane et al., 2008). Furthermore, men who rated their LD symptoms as more severe also scored higher on depression measures than men who experienced less severe symptoms. It is unknown these findings can be generalized to other groups of HIV positive individuals. The current study seeks to fill this gap in the literature by exploring the associations between LD, body image, and depressive symptoms in an archival sample of HIV positive Black women. This study aims to describe the body changes associated with HAART in a Black female sample and explore the relationships between LD, body image, depression, and quality of life. Findings supported past research indicating a correlation between depression and poor body image but did not indicate that body image quality of life moderated the relationship between perceived body changes and depression. Results expanded on the literature by indicating that perceived body changes may be more distressing to Black women with HIV than objective changes. Lastly, findings suggested that Black women may have inaccurate perceptions of their own body changes. These findings are particularly informative for healthcare workers who treat HIV+ women. It is imperative that they consider clients’ self-report as well as clinical symptoms.

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological inquiry was to explore college-aged women's experiences of body positivity and self-acceptance. I applied a conceptual framework that blended feminist identity development model (FIDM) and relational cultural theory (RCT) to answer the following questions: (a) what are the lived experiences of college-aged women who identify as having a positive and accepting body image? and (b) how do college-aged women's intersecting identities contribute to the development of positive and accepting body image? Ten college-age women participated in the current study. The participants provided detailed accounts of their experiences of body image throughout their life. Five overarching themes were identified through data analysis of the interview transcripts: (a) advocating for self and others, (b) beauty expectations and societal definitions, (c) intersecting identities, (d) journey of acceptance, and (e) relationships and community. Participants offered insight into the development of their current position of body positivity and self-acceptance that serve as implications for other relevant contexts. Implications and recommendations drawn from the participants' experiences can inform preventative and treatment care in educational settings, family environments, clinical practice, and integrated care.

Thesis advisor: William Stanwood / This research study seeks to answer the question of whether or not televisions advertisements’ depictions of female body image influences eating disorders in the young women who view such advertisements. The role of the cognitive processes social comparison theory and thin-ideal internalization was also explored as mediators in this relationship, as well as the efficiency of various programs aimed at correcting the problem of eating disorders in young women. Results were obtained by coding and observing the advertisements of various television programs popular among such a demographic. Messages encouraging thinness were recorded, as well as the percentage of thin actresses viewed. After analyzing the results and reviewing recent research on the problem, the conclusion was made there is likely a relationship between eating disorders and the depiction of the thin-ideal in advertising, however such a relationship is largely dependent on the female viewer herself, andmany other factors. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Communication Honors Program. / Discipline: Communication.

Thesis advisor: Davarian Baldwin / This thesis explores the paradoxical role of American women in the 1920s. The Twenties was a decade of rapid industry and progressive liberalism that generated the birth of the “modern” woman. As a group, women gained significant power in political, economic, and educational domains and ushered in ideas of female independence, individuality, and free will. Yet it was also a period of superficial exploitation and objectification of female bodies. Women could express their individuality, but only within the bounds of what was deemed acceptable by the male-dominated commercial beauty culture. While women had increasing control over their lives, they used this control to scrutinize and regulate their own bodies to achieve standards of feminine beauty. The combined experience of the American woman’s new independence and power, the growing beauty culture, and new understandings of the body as a site for change was both liberating and restricting. Ultimately, this thesis shows that the Modern Woman liberated and empowered the modern American woman, while submerging her further into the strangling grasp of self-regulation and societal constructs. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: History Honors Program. / Discipline: History.

Partindo de uma hipótese inicial de que há na Literatura Infantojuvenil elementos (explícitos ou implícitos) que configuram representações do corpo desviante geradoras ou propiciadoras de cristalizações de estereótipos, denunciadoras de atitudes e preconceitos frente à diferença corporal e perpetuadoras de leituras maniqueístas e estigma, o presente trabalho buscou a analise da concretização desses elementos, através do estudo de características das 47 histórias eleitas, destinadas ao público infantil e juvenil, escritas por autores brasileiros e editadas entre 1971 e 1991, sendo que a ênfase da análise recaiu sob e atributos e ações das personagens corporalmente diferentes. Antes de chegar aos resultados, foi percorrido um caminho que, partindo das visões de corpo, transitou pela problemática do desvio, da diferença, da deficiência; pelo emaranhado conceitual de atitudes, preconceitos, estereótipos e estigma; pelo universo das significações, das anomalias, das monstruosidades, do grotesco; pelo território da Literatura e da Psicologia; pelas especificidades do gênero literário em pauta; pelos meandros metodológicos. As unidades de análise para pesquisa do corpus foram: o narrador, a trama, a narrativa e o tipo de discurso; a situação inicial da história; o universo constitucional das personagens; os tipos de deficiência e alteração corporal; as personagens no contexto dramático: características, ações e funções; a nomeação; os campos de atribuição dos fenômenos na etiologia e no desfecho. Foram também definidos três focos adicionais de interesse, voltados para as questões do \"olhar\" do outro, das \"perdas\" e dos \"desejos\". Conclui-se pela confirmação da hipótese inicial e distribui-se as reflexões finais em três grandes vertentes: etiologia da diferença (ênfase na culpabilização), status da personagem (vitima, herói, vilão) e desfecho (cura, exotismo, isolamento, morte). Vertentes essas pensadas como girando em torno de três eixos principais: histórias \"altamente\" preconceituosas, histórias \"denunciado as\" de preconceitos e histórias \"livres\" de preconceitos. / This study was based on the suppostiion that representations of the divergent body gener-ate and/or make possible the cristallization of stereotypes. These stereotypes reveal the existence of prejudices (among other attitudes) against corporeal differences and contribute to maintain stigma and manichaeistic interpretations of those differences. As a consequence of this supposition, it was assumed that it could be found, in the literature written fo child en and young people, elements, implicitly o explicitly argued, that were in acco dance with the kind of representation supposed. To investigate this empirical assumption, the present study analyzed the characteristics of 47 chosen stories, written by Brazilian authors, for child en and young people, and published from 1971 to 1991. The focuses of the analysis were the actions and the attributes of those characters whose bodies were divergent from the more usual one. A two-ply theoretical support for the analysis was sought. In one hand, it was based on the literature concerning the concepts of body. specially conside ing the issues of deviation, difference and disability. On the other hand the support was sought on the conceptual puzzle of attitudes, stereotypes and stigma. Across the criticai reading of this literature, \"the long and winding road\" travelled included the universe of meanings, anomalias, monstrosities and the grothesque appearence. It was necessary to specificate the literary genre studied and the methodological approach best fitted to the pursued goals. The units employed to analyze the corpus were the starting point of the story; the narrator; the narrativa structure; the nar ation itself and the kind of speech used; the character\'s constitutional universe; the kinds of disability and/o co poreal alteration. The characters were also analyzed in the d amatic context, considering their cha acteristics, actions and functions. The fields of attribution of the occurrences were determined at the beginning (etiology) and at the ending of these occurences. Additionally, three other issues were investigated, which are the other person\'s look to the character whose body was different and the lesses and desires of this character.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / This study grew out of the general problem area concerning the relationship between psychological factors and response to pain. The specific variable focused upon was body image, broadly defined as a constellation of body attitudes and ways of experiencing the body, two of which -- body anxiety and body boundary definiteness -- were studied intensively. Body anxiety, defined as the degree of concern, conflict or anxiety a person experiences about his body, was measured by the Homonym Test, developed by Secord. This is a word association test involving 75 words which can have either a body or a non-body meaning such as "graft" or "colon". Two general measures of anxiety, theTaylor Manifest Anxiety Scale and Holtzman's adaptation of the Elizur Content Anxiety Scale, were also administered. The second body image variable, body boundary definiteness, was defined as an index of a person's sense of differentiation from the world as a separate, intact entity. It was further considered to be an index of the development of differentiated ego boundaries, reflecting highly developed ego-functioning, and consequently, the capacity to modulate response to stress. In order to measure body boundary definiteness, the barrier score of Fisher and Cleveland was used. This score is based on an analysis of inkblot responses emphasizing protective, containing or concealing features. Three aspects of response to pain were studied; these were pain perception, pain tolerance, and adaptation to pain. Operationally, pain perception was measured in terms of the intensity at which an electric shock to the forearm was judged as "uncomfortable" and the level at which it was judged as "painful ". Pain tolerance was likewise measured in two ways. The first, "unmotivated tolerance level", was the point at which subjects first refused to receive higher intensities of shock. The second, "motivated tolerance level", was the point at which subjects refused to go higher following mild urging to go as high as they possibly could. Finally, adaptation to pain was measured in terms of the amount of increase in each of the pain perception and tolerance levels as a result of repeating the level setting procedure following a period of repeated shocks. The specific hypotheses tested in the study were: 1) Definiteness of body boundaries is positively correlated with pain perception threshold. 2) Body anxiety is negatively correlated with pain perception threshold. 3) Definiteness of body boundaries is positively correlated with ability to tolerate pain. 4) Body anxiety is negatively correlated with ability to tolerate pain. 5) Definiteness of body boundaries is positively correlated with adaptation to pain. 6) Body anxiety is negatively correlated with adaptation to pain. The results, based on a sample of 30 subjects, supported only hypotheses one and three, those involving body boundary definiteness. There were significant correlations between the Barrier scores and painful level, unmotivated tolerance level, and motivated tolerance level. The hypothesized relationship between body anxiety and pain perception and pain tolerance were not supported by the experimental results. Neither of the body image variables was correlated with adaptation to pain as stated in hypotheses five and six. This was seen to be the result of the fact that most of the subjects were highly stable in their judgements about pain and in their ability to tolerate pain. Thus, adaptation did not occur. In addition, it was found that the Holtzman Content Anxiety scores were negatively correlated with the two pain tolerance measures. There was a tendency toward an inverted-U shaped relationship between tvlanifest Anxiety and pain perception level and motivated tolerance level. The results of the study were considered to provide partial support for the assumption that body image variables are relevant to response to pain. / 2031-01-01

Body weight perceptions remain an important area of study. Beauty ideals have changed significantly with more emphasis on thinness. According to sociocultural perspectives, the pressure to be thin results in negative psychological consequences in most Western societies. Evidence, however, suggests that certain cultural and ethnic groups retain a traditional preference for plumpness. This thesis aimed to understand cultural perceptions of body weight and its influence on body dissatisfaction, self-esteem, body appreciation and physical activity in Jamaica. The research employed a mixed methodology approach. Qualitative inquiry using thematic analysis unearthed various beliefs about body weight and its health consequences. Specifically, it identified varying body ideals for women in Jamaica. These are the 'fluffy' body ideal and the slim ideal. The term 'fluffy' referred to women with larger bodies who were perceived to be confident and attractive. The novel Fluffy Rating Questionnaire (FRQ) was developed and was subjected to both exploratory factor analysis (parallel analysis) in study 2 and later confirmatory factor analysis in study 3. It was determined that the FRQ was best suited to examine impressions of fluffy women's personality which was a significant contribution to knowledge on fluffiness in Jamaica. Data were analyzed using Pearson's correlation, regression analysis, and analysis of variance. There were no relationships between impressions of fluffy women's personality, self-esteem, body appreciation or body dissatisfaction. However, the results support existing knowledge on the relationship between body mass index and body dissatisfaction, self-esteem and body appreciation. Impressions of fluffy were simulated and results suggest impressions of fluffy were related to lower recall of physical activity compared to impressions of obesity and the control. Overall, the findings indicate that there are influences of Western body ideals in Jamaica; however, there is still a traditional preference for plumpness which is conveyed through local expressions such as 'Fluffy'.

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