What is body dissatisfaction

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146 HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY
gain, of illness), pleasure (over a success which deserves a treat) and guilt (about
overeating) might contribute towards eating behaviour.
I Some cognitive models incorporate the views of others in the form of the construct
‘subjective norm’. This does not adequately address the central role that others play
in a behaviour as social as eating.
I At times the cognitive models appear tautological in that the independent variables
do not seem conceptually separate from the dependent variables they are being used
to predict. For example is the cognition ‘I am confident I can eat fruit and vegetables’
really distinct from the cognition ‘I intend to eat fruit and vegetables’?
I Although the cognitive models have been applied extensively to behaviour their abil-
ity to predict actual behaviour remains poor, leaving a large amount of variance to be
explained by undefined factors.
In sum, from a social cognitive perspective eating behaviour can be understood and
predicted by measuring an individual’s cognitions about food. The research in this area
points to a consistently important role for attitudes towards a food (e.g. ‘I think eating a
healthy meal is enjoyable’) and a role for an individual’s beliefs about behavioural control
(e.g. ‘how confident are you that you could eat a healthy diet’). There is also some
evidence that ambivalence may moderate the association between attitude and intention.
However, there is no evidence for either social norms or other hypothesized variables.
Such an approach ignores the role of a range of other cognitions, particularly those
relating to the meaning of food and the meaning of size and at times the associations
between variables is weak leaving much of the variance in eating behaviour unexplained.
A WEIGHT CONCERN MODEL OF EATING BEHAVIOUR
The meaning of food and weight
So far this chapter has explored developmental and cognitive models of eating behaviour.
Developmental models emphasize the role of learning and association and cognitive
models emphasize the role of attitudes and beliefs. However, food is associated with many
meanings such as a treat, a celebration, the forbidden fruit, a family get together, being a
good mother and being a good child (Ogden 2003). Furthermore, once eaten food can
change the body’s weight and shape, which is also associated with meanings such as
attractiveness, control and success (Ogden 2003). As a result of these meanings many
women, in particular, show weight concern in the form of body dissatisfaction, which
often results in dieting. Weight concern and its impact on eating behaviour will now be
described.
What is body dissatisfaction?
Body dissatisfaction comes in many forms. Some research has conceptualized body dissatisfaction in terms of a distorted body size estimation and a perception that the body is
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larger than it really is. For example, Slade and Russell (1973) asked anorexics to adjust
the distance between two lights on a beam in a darkened room until the lights represented the width of aspects of their body such as their hips, waist and shoulders. The
results showed that anorexics consistently overestimated their size compared with control subjects. Other studies coming from the same perspective have asked subjects to
mark either two ends of a life-size piece of paper (Gleghorn et al. 1987), to adjust the
horizontal dimensions on either a television or video image of themselves (Freeman et al.
1984; Gardner et al. 1987), or to change the dimensions on a distorting mirror (Brodie
et al. 1989). This research has consistently shown that individuals with clinically defined
eating disorders show greater perceptual distortion than non-clinical subjects. However,
the research has also shown that the vast majority of women, with or without an eating
disorder, think that they are fatter than they actually are.
Some research has emphasized a discrepancy between perceptions of reality versus
those of an ideal without a comparison to the individual’s actual size as objectively
measured by the researcher. This research has tended to use whole-body silhouette
pictures of varying sizes whereby the subject is asked to state which one is closest to how
they look now and which one best illustrates how they would like to look. For example,
Stunkard et al. (1983) used this approach with normal male and female students;
Counts and Adams (1985) used it with bulimics, dieters and ex-obese females; and
Collins (1991) used it with pre-adolescent children. It has consistently been shown that
most girls and women would like to be thinner than they are and most males would like
to be either the same or larger (see Figure 6.4).
The final and most frequent way in which body dissatisfaction is understood is simply
in terms of negative feelings and cognitions towards the body. This has been assessed using
questionnaires such as the body shape questionnaire (Cooper et al. 1987), the body areas
satisfaction scale (Brown et al. 1990) and the body dissatisfaction subscale of the eating
disorders inventory (Garner 1991). These questionnaires ask questions such as ‘Do
you worry about parts of your body being too big?’, ‘Do you worry about your thighs
spreading out when you sit down?’ and ‘Does being with thin women make you feel
Fig. 6-4 Measuring body dissatisfaction
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