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Some meanings of body and self in eating‐disordered and comparison subjects
Author(s) -
Ryle A.,
Evans C. D. H.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
british journal of medical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.102
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 2044-8341
pISSN - 0007-1129
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8341.1991.tb01666.x
Subject(s) - psychology , overweight , underweight , connotation , eating disorders , human sexuality , normal weight , perception , developmental psychology , body weight , clinical psychology , body mass index , medicine , endocrinology , gender studies , linguistics , philosophy , neuroscience , sociology
A new repertory grid was used to compare a group of 27 eating‐disordered women (EDS) with a group of 20 women of normal weight without eating disorders (NWC) on contrasts from theories which link abnormalities in the perception of body and self to the eating disorders. No evidence was found for greater polarization of either self or body images in the EDS. A negative connotation of the body at normal weight and overweight was specific to EDS, but the underweight body did not have a more positive connotation. Negative connotation of normal weight is shown to be more specific for EDS than is negative connotation of the overweight body. There was no evidence for specific implications of weight for sexuality nor for family pressures against sexuality or femininity in EDS although they did construe themselves as less sexual than the NWC.