Ioannou Korina, Fox John R E
Division of Clinical Psychology, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
Clin Psychol Psychother. 2009 Jul-Aug;16(4):336-47. doi: 10.1002/cpp.632.
Recent research has documented links between eating disorder (ED) symptomatology and emotional expression deficits. Relevant theoretical models have alluded to the functional role of disordered eating in alleviating affect that is felt to be otherwise unmanageable and threatening. Nevertheless, research examining ED individuals' perceptions of emotional states has been sparse, while empirical studies have predominantly focused on global conceptualizations of emotion, failing to address discrete affect states. The current study had three aims: (a) to determine the relation between ED symptomatology and emotional expression, in a sample of women with ED, in an attempt to confirm previous findings of an inverse relation; (b) to test the hypothesis that women with ED inhibit the expression of emotions perceived as threatening, by examining the relation between emotional expression and perceptions of threat from emotion, while partialling out the effects of depression; and (c) to determine whether, amongst women with ED, perceptions of threat from anger are uniquely associated with emotional inhibition, when the effects of depression and body dissatisfaction are controlled for. Results demonstrated that (a) emotional expression was negatively related with the three Eating Disorders Inventory-3 subscales (drive for thinness, bulimia and body dissatisfaction); (b) perceived threat from emotion, particularly anger, was negatively correlated with emotional expression, when depression was partialled out in the analysis; and (c) perceived threat from anger significantly and uniquely predicted emotional inhibition, over and above the effects of body dissatisfaction and depression, in a sample of women with ED symptomatology. It is suggested that anger may be perceived as particularly threatening amongst women with ED, and play a significant role in the emotional expression difficulties that this population experiences. The implications of the current findings are discussed in line with relevant theory and research, with particular reference to the new Schematic Propositional Analogical Associative Representation System for Eating Disorders (SPAARS-ED) model.
近期研究记录了饮食失调（ED）症状与情绪表达缺陷之间的联系。相关理论模型暗示了紊乱饮食在缓解被认为难以控制和具有威胁性的情绪方面的功能作用。然而，研究饮食失调个体对情绪状态认知的研究一直很稀少，而实证研究主要集中在对情绪的整体概念化上，未能涉及离散的情感状态。本研究有三个目的：（a）在患有饮食失调的女性样本中确定饮食失调症状与情绪表达之间的关系，以试图证实先前发现的负相关关系；（b）通过研究情绪表达与对情绪威胁的认知之间的关系，同时排除抑郁的影响，来检验患有饮食失调的女性抑制被视为具有威胁性的情绪表达这一假设；（c）在控制抑郁和身体不满的影响后，确定在患有饮食失调的女性中，对愤怒威胁的认知是否与情绪抑制存在独特关联。结果表明：（a）情绪表达与《饮食失调问卷-3》的三个分量表（追求瘦身、暴食和身体不满）呈负相关；（b）在分析中排除抑郁因素后，对情绪，尤其是愤怒的感知威胁与情绪表达呈负相关；（c）在患有饮食失调症状的女性样本中，除了身体不满和抑郁的影响外，对愤怒威胁的感知显著且独特地预测了情绪抑制。研究表明，在患有饮食失调的女性中，愤怒可能被视为特别具有威胁性，并在该人群所经历的情绪表达困难中起重要作用。本研究结果的意义将结合相关理论和研究进行讨论，尤其参考新的饮食失调示意图命题类比联想表征系统（SPAARS-ED）模型。
