This investigation is concerned with the problem of determining whether or not a significant relationship exists between body cathexis and motor performance in junior high school girls. In addition, the study investigates whether or not there are significant differences among Negro, white, and Mexican--American girls and seventh-,eighth-, and ninth-grade girls in body cathexis and motor ability performance.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between appearance management, created appearance, body cathexis, and clothing behavior for a group of women enrolled in a commercial weight loss program. Subjects were 171 females enrolled in Weight Watchers® programs in Christiansburg, Virginia. No previous research had investigated clothing behavior, appearance management, created appearance, and body cathexis of women in a weight loss program. Because clothing is such an integral part of the self, it was important to examine the influences and contributions of this variable to weight loss. The proposed research model hypothesized that the following variables would be related: appearance management and created appearance, created appearance and body cathexis, body cathexis and current clothing behavior, and created appearance and current clothing behavior. Other hypotheses tested the relationships between current clothing behavior and prior clothing and between demographics and the following variables: appearance management, created appearance, body cathexis, and current clothing behavior. Results indicated that a greater percentage of weight loss was related to a higher average body cathexis score. Respondents wore clothing that emphasized body parts with which they were more satisfied, and wore clothing that did not emphasize body parts with which they were less satisfied. Results indicated that after weight loss, respondents wore clothing that would emphasize their body with more frequency and also wore clothing that would hide or camouflage their body with less frequency. Current clothing behavior also seemed to be influenced by age and marital status. Findings from the present study provide new information about how women choose clothing based on the level of satisfaction with their bodies and where they have experienced a weight loss. The findings also provide information about the types and styles of clothing that women choose as a result of losing weight. Women in weight loss programs can use clothing to enhance their appearance and improve their body image. By increasing body satisfaction and feeling better about their bodies as they are going through the weight loss program, they may be more likely to continue with their efforts and be more successful in their weight loss. / Ph. D.

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The concept of Psychic Energy holds a very important position in the field of Psychoanalysis, particularly within the theories of Sigmund Freud. These ideas, including the notion of a constancy of excitation, or the ‘pleasure principle’, as well as energy transfer and ‘cathexis’, are important not only historically in terms of the subsequent development of Psychoanalytic theory, but also remain a core conceptual assumption of a number of concepts in contemporary use. However, the central ideas related to psychic energy have undergone little substantial revision or development since the end of Freud’s career, despite a number of compelling critiques that call into question the central definitions and assumptions of these concepts, particularly the principles defining their governance. Grobbelaar (1989) has suggested that a number of problems within Psychoanalytic theory can be powerfully addressed through recourse to central propositions from the field of systems theory, and the case is made in the present thesis that some of the core problems with the energic theory may indeed be the result of a pre-systems epistemology. The present study proposes that psychic energy be defined as recursively constituted through three levels of the human system (inorganic, organic and informational), and that the core principles of regulation at the informational level is not constancy, or pleasure, but rather the necessity of maintaining organisation. In line with this proposition, the study reviews a number of theoretical propositions from systems theory and cybernetics (including the notions of energy defined as ‘information’ or ‘free energy’) and how they may be usefully deployed as principles of organisation of psychic energy within the psychoanalytic framework. Examples of how these principles may be used to explain Freud’s core observations of ego functioning are presented as well. / Psychology / Ph. D. (Psychology)