Abstract
The aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of attentional training towards shape, weight and food related information on body dissatisfaction and dietary restriction. A total of 98 female participants were trained to attend to negative shape/weight words, positive shape/weight words, negative (high calorie) food words, positive (low calorie) food words or neutral words. Subsequently, a body image challenge was presented and participants’ body dissatisfaction and dietary restriction were measured. Results indicated that negative shape/weight attentional biases exacerbated body dissatisfaction and a bias towards negative food words intensified dietary restriction. The study provides evidence for specificity in the effects of attentional biases and supports the notion that attentional training may be a useful component in interventions to improve body image and reduce dieting.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 169-176 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | European Eating Disorders Review |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2009 |
Keywords
- body image
- eating disorders
- selectivity (psychology)