Anorexia: Contemporary Study (Guardia 2012) Flashcards
(14 cards)
What were the aims of this study?
- To investigate whether distorted perception of body size occurred only when judging one’s own body or whether it was an overall judgement problem
- To investigate whether people with anorexia would be different from a control group in judging whether a gap was large enough for their body to pass through
Who were used in the sample?
- 50 female ppts from France with a mean age of 24
- All students from Lille, France
- 25 from an ED clinic who had a mean BMI of 15, age of 23.84 years
- 25 healthy controls who had a mean BMI of 22, age of 24.48
What participant design was used?
Matched pairs on age and education. All diagnosed using the DSM-IV-TR
What type of method was used?
Lab
Briefly describe the procedure of this contemporary study.
- All ppts carried out a body shape questionnaire (BSQ) and EDI-2 (showed desire for thinness) prior to the experiment in which AN patients scored 123 and controls scored 66
- All ppts were measured on height, shoulder width (ANs having avg 37cm and controls having 41cm), BMI and it was all standardised
- They measured changes over time by looking at BMI before the disorder, 6 months before the study and at the time of the study
- There were 51 different door openings ranging from 30-80cm that were projected in a random order in which ppts had to stand 6m away from
- Each opening was present 4 times in 2 conditions
- The first condition involved a first person perspective (1PP) in which they would judge whether their own body could fit through the gap
- the second was a third person perspective (3PP) in which they judged whether the experimenter’s body would fit through the opening
- The shoulder width of the experimenter was 38cm, 1.60m in height, weighed 52kg and stood 5.9m away from the wall.
- The perceived critical opening was a space in which the person thought they could walk through 50% of the time
- When the perceived critical opening was 1 it was equal to shoulder width and so could not pass through, if it was higher you could and lower you could not pass through
What was the IV and DV?
IV = opening of the projected door
DV = perceived critical opening of the individual
What were the results of Guardia’s study?
- ANs showed significant overestimation of their body size
- the AN group had a significantly higher score on the BSQ than controls
- In 1PP there was a significant difference in perceptual ratio of ANs (at 1.321) than control (at 1.106)
- In the 3PP condition the difference was only 0.09 between scores of ANs and controls which was not significant
- (so much more accurate at predicting the body size of the experimenter)
- There was a significant difference between scores for 1PP and 3PP for ANs whereas there was not for controls
- Those who had lost weight 6 months prior to study showed the greatest difference in body perception
Describe the conclusion of this study.
- Those with AN significantly overestimate their body size
- ANs were better at perceiving the critical opening for the experimenter than their own showing no general perceptual issues
- Losing weight did not adapt their internal body image and instead their brains still perceived their bodies to be larger than they were
- the overestimation of the ratio between size of opening and shoulder width is thought to be because of their own body schema issues- so not a perceptual issue.
Evaluate the generalisablity using a low point.
A weakness of this study is the low generalisability. This is because a sample of only 25 AN patients were used from Lille, France, and so is not representative of non-Western cultures and their body perception as their cause of AN may be due to a different cause.
Evaluate the reliability using 2 high points.
A strength of this study is the high levels of reliability. This is because it used a standardised procedure in which in the 1PP condition, the ppts were to stand 6m away from the wall, with the projection of the opening on the wall in front of them, and in the 3PP condition, the experimenter stood 5.9 m away from the wall, and all pptps could get a better view of the experimenter by walking around, and had to say whether (in booth conditions) each respective ppt could fit through the gap at normal speed without turning. This is a strength as it makes the study easy to replicate to test fro consistency across cultures in the perceptual/judgement issues of AN patients.
Additionally, there is high reliability. Data such as the perceived critical opening and BMI was quantitative and measurable- meaning it is more scientific as it objective numbers can be compared easily.
All patients completed the same standardised questionnaires before the study- BSQ and EDI-2.
Are there any applications?
A strength of this study is that it was highlighted that AN could be a result of their own body schema issues. Patients have not adapted their internal body image to take into account their ‘new’ body size after developing the disorder- still perceiving themselves to be larger despite the visual information contradicting this. Therefore, this informs us of solutions to treating AN such as CBT or other cognitive treatments such as embodiment therapy, as this helps patients to reconnect with their own bodies, improving their perception of their body- acting as a treatment for their outdated schemas.
Evaluate validity using 2 high points.
A strength is the high levels of internal validity. Guardia used a matched pairs on ANs and controls of age and education. This controls for ppt variables that may cause differences in perception knowing that it won’t influence data- so increases internal validity.
A strength is the high levels of internal validity, due to the use of quantitative data. All measures were objective due to the perceived critical opening being a ratio and using shoulder width (cm) to compare. Quantitative data reduces elements of subjectivity with things like researcher bias, as results can be statistically analysed to see if they are significant, reducing chance of researcher bias.
Evaluate validity using 2 low points.
However, a weakness of the study is that there is low task validity. This is because the experiment took place in an artificial, controlled lab setting whereby the opening of a door was projected onto a wall and were asked to give an opinion on whether they could fit through the opening at normal speed without turning. This therefore doesn’t reflect situations in real life in which an AN patient would judge their own body size, and so lacks mundane realism.
ethical issue.
A weakness of this study is that it is highly unethical. Those with AN may have felt distressed when trying to decide if they could fit though a door and thinking they couldn’t. By getting them to consider their own body size 4 times in 51 openings, this could trigger or reinforce body image thoughts. This may have caused them emotional discomfort and psychological distress, as body perception is a core issue in AN.
