The meaning and measurement of body image disturbance in college women.

The present investigation consisted of two studies examining the theory and measurement of body image disturbance in normal-weighted women. Concerning measurement, the preliminary study verified the reliability of a paper-and-pencil method developed by the author for measuring body image distortion, the Body Size Distortion Questionnaire (BSDQ; Mable, 1985). Also, as this procedure utilizes self-report estimates of frame size, body weight, and height, the accuracy of these estimates was determined. The main study investigated the relationship of body image disturbance to personality variables relevant to body image problems and eating disorders: depression, interoceptive awareness, interpersonal distrust, bulimic attitudes, maturity fears, ineffectiveness, and perfectionism. One hundred and ninety-four normal-weighted college women completed the Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI; Garner, Olmsted, & Polivy, 1983), the Body Esteem Scale (BES; Franzoi & Shields, 1984), the Goldfarb Fear of Fat Scale (GFFS; Goldfarb, Dykens, & Gerrard, 1985), the Beck Depression Inventory (Beck et al., 1961), and the author\u27s BSDQ. As well, all subjects were individually weighed on a scale upon completing the battery of personality and body image measures. The results were in concordance with previous findings that body image disturbance is a widespread problem in the general female population. The primary component of the disturbance seemed to be the woman\u27s perception that she is overweight, more so than her measured degree of overweight. Results also showed that personality variables relevant to eating disorder phenomena were related to body image disturbance in this sample of normal women. Findings called into question the model that postulates that body image disturbance in eating-disordered women is the product of different personality variables than those associated with body image disturbance in normal women. In fact, important qualitative similarities were observed.Dept. of Psychology. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1989 .M225. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-03, Section: B, page: 1114. Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1989