The relationship between women's body satisfaction and self-image across the life span: the role of cognitive control

The authors examined the relationship between body dissatisfaction and self-image across the life span. A sample of 106 women between the ages of 20 and 65 years completed questionnaire measures of body dissatisfaction, body importance, cognitive control over the body, self-concept, and self-esteem. The authors found that body dissatisfaction and body importance did not differ among the groups of women who were younger, middle aged, and older. Although body dissatisfaction was related to self-concept and self-esteem for the entire sample, the strength of that relationship reduced with increasing age and increasing perceptions of cognitive control. The authors concluded that the cognitive strategies of women who were older protect their self-concept and self-esteem from the influence of body dissatisfaction.     

Body dissatisfaction and adolescent self-esteem: prospective findings

The aim of the study was to investigate prospectively the direction of the relationship between adolescent girls’ body dissatisfaction and self-esteem. Participants were 242 female high school students who completed questionnaires at two points in time, separated by 2 years. The questionnaire contained measures of weight (BMI), body dissatisfaction (perceived overweight, figure dissatisfaction, weight satisfaction) and self-esteem. Initial body dissatisfaction predicted self-esteem at Time 1 and Time 2, and initial self-esteem predicted body dissatisfaction at Time 1 and Time 2. However, linear panel analysis (regression analyses controlling for Time 1 variables) found that aspects of Time 1 weight and body dissatisfaction predicted change in self-esteem, but not vice versa. It was concluded that young girls with heavier actual weight and perceptions of being overweight were particularly vulnerable to developing low self-esteem.     

Visual Feedback of Target Position Affects Accuracy of Sequential Movements at Even Spaces

The role of visual feedback during movement is attributed to its accuracy, but findings regarding the utilization of this information are inconsistent. We developed a novel dot-placing task to investigate the role of vision in arm movements. Participants conducted pointing-like movements between two target stimuli at even spaces. In Experiment 1, visual feedback of targets and response positions was manipulated. Although visual loss of target stimuli hindered accuracy of movements, the absence of the position of previously placed dots had little effect. In Experiment 2, the effect of movement time on accuracy was assessed, as the relationship between these has been traditionally understood as a speed/accuracy trade-off. Results revealed that duration of movement did not impact movement accuracy.     

Disclaimer labels on fashion magazine advertisements: Effects on social comparison and body dissatisfaction

Recent proposals across a number of Western countries have suggested that idealised media images should carry some sort of disclaimer informing readers when these images have been digitally enhanced. The present studies aimed to experimentally investigate the impact on women's body dissatisfaction of the addition of such warning labels to fashion magazine advertisements. Participants were 120 and 114 female undergraduate students in Experiment 1 and Experiment 2 respectively. In both experiments, participants viewed fashion magazine advertisements with either no warning label, a generic warning label, or a specific more detailed warning label. In neither experiment was there a significant effect of type of label. However, state appearance comparison was found to predict change in body dissatisfaction irrespective of condition. Unexpectedly, trait appearance comparison moderated the effect of label on body dissatisfaction, such that for women high on trait appearance comparison, exposure to specific warning labels actually resulted in increased body dissatisfaction. In sum, the present results showed no benefit of warning labels in ameliorating the known negative effect of viewing thin-ideal media images, and even suggested that one form of warning (specific) might be harmful for some individuals. Accordingly, it was concluded that more extensive research is required to guide the most effective use of disclaimer labels.     

Trauma and processes of separation from parental figures

Abstract

Extreme conditions in some young persons' life-experiences might postpone or even hinder the natural process of mourning of lost childhood omnipotence, ambivalent feelings towards and separation from parental figures. The psychic mechanisms behind these youngsters' flight from the loving grip of their parents to the conflicting situations which later traumatise them are described. The traumatic events following their choice of leaving the parental home were later unconsciously experienced as punishment—a direct consequence of the forbidden separation. Guilt problems otherwise within the normal range of development, here get a special colouring which can be recognised among others in the difficulties to establish a working-alliance with the therapist and problems in establishing intimate relationships later in life.     

The framework of psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy with traumatised patients and the institution

Abstract

Lindbom-Jakobson M, Lindgren L. The Framework of Psychoanalytically Oriented Psychotherapy with Traumatised Patients and the Institution. Int Forum Psychoanal 1997;6:217-224. ISSN 0803-706X.

Psychotherapies performed at multidisciplinary institutions will be influenced by the ongoing dynamics and inevitable group processes of the institution. The difficulties of these processes become extremely hard to handle when the patient category is a severely traumatised one. The prerequisite of psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy, the illusion of the sealed room and fixed framework, gets disturbed by the information flow in an institution. The institutions for these patients tend to become stages on which the patients as well as staff can perform and repeat their intrapsychic and interpersonal conflicts, non-adaptive defences and disturbed object relations. The predominant dynamic that arises around tortured refugees as a patient category is sado-masochistic relating.     

The Mystical and the Material: Slavoj Žižek and the French Reception of Mysticism

This paper will argue that the work of Slavoj ?i?ek can be fruitfully understood as a response to mystical theology as it has been received in two strands of 20th century French thought—psychoanalysis and phenomenology—and that ?i?ek's work in turn offers intriguing possibilities for the re-figuring of mystical theology by feminist philosophy of religion. Twentieth century French psychoanalysis is dominated by the work of Jacques Lacan and by his students Julia Kristeva and Luce Irigaray. All three of these figures engage in significant ways with mystical theology—particularly with the works and figures of female mystics—as a crucial resource for theorising gender and subjectivity. A second strand of the 20th century French reception of mystical theology is the phenomenological tradition, specifically the work of Jacques Derrida. This paper will argue that, drawing on and challenging both of these elements of recent French engagement with mystical theology, ?i?ek's work offers a materialist ontology which seeks to locate transcendence within immanence and materiality, offering to feminist philosophy of religion the resources for re-thinking the relationship of the mystical to the material.     

Appearance investment in Australian brides-to-be

The present study examined the appearance concerns of 440 engaged women recruited from bridal websites across Australia. Participants completed a short online questionnaire incorporating measures of appearance investment, dietary restraint, and their pre-wedding beauty preparation plans. Overall, brides-to-be reported similar levels of both facets of appearance investment (self-evaluative salience and motivational salience) to normative samples. High appearance investment and dietary restraint were significantly related to a greater number of pre-wedding beauty, diet, and exercise regimes. Furthermore, pre-wedding plans were predicted differently by the two facets of appearance investment. Specifically, self-evaluative salience predicted wedding weight discrepancy, while motivational salience was a significant predictor of both appearance-related and exercise/eating behaviors. Results indicate that reducing the focus on appearance surrounding weddings and promoting a healthier bridal weight ideal may be useful in discouraging harmful appearance altering behaviors and attitudes (e.g., tanning, surgery, desire to lose weight) among women with high appearance investment.     

The Effect of Simultaneous Exercise and Exposure to Thin-Ideal Music Videos on Women’s State Self-Objectification, Mood and Body Satisfaction

The present study examined the simultaneous impact of thin-ideal music videos and exercise on state self-objectification, mood and body satisfaction, in order to assess whether exercise can ameliorate the usually found negative effects of appearance-focused media. One-hundred and eighty-four South Australian undergraduate women viewed appearance-focused or neutral music videos, with half in each condition simultaneously participating in a bout of exercise or in quiet rest. Participants completed pre- and post- state measures of mood, body satisfaction and self-objectification. As expected, exposure to appearance-focused music videos produced increased state self-objectification in comparison to neutral images. For body satisfaction, an interaction emerged for the dimension of physical attractiveness, whereby women who exercised and watched appearance-focused video clips felt more attractive than women watching the same clips who did not exercise, and felt no less attractive than women who watched neutral clips. The findings demonstrate that thin-ideal music videos serve to increase state self-objectification, but that exercise can ameliorate the negative effects of idealized media images on women’s feelings of physical attractiveness.