Department of Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany.
Department of Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany.
Int J Eat Disord. 2019 Aug;52(8):895-903. doi: 10.1002/eat.23127. Epub 2019 Jun 26.
Abundant research points to the central role of body image disturbances in the occurrence of eating disorders (ED). While emotional arousal has been identified as a trigger for binge eating in bulimia nervosa (BN), empirical knowledge on the influence of emotions on body image in individuals with BN is scarce. The present study sought to experimentally examine effects of a positive and negative emotion induction on body dissatisfaction and selective attention towards negatively valenced body parts among people with BN.
In a randomized-controlled cross-over design, happiness and sadness were induced by film clips one-week apart in women with BN (n = 23) and non-ED controls (n = 26). After the emotion induction, participants looked at their body in a full-length mirror, while their attentional allocation was recorded with the help of a mobile eye tracker. Participants repeatedly rated their momentary body dissatisfaction.
Induction of happiness led to a significant decrease in self-reported body dissatisfaction. Furthermore, attentional bias (higher gaze duration and frequency) towards the most disliked body part relative to the most liked body part was significantly greater in the sadness than happiness condition in BN. No significant effects of emotion induction on gaze duration and gaze frequency during mirror exposure were found for controls.
In line with assumptions of current models on ED, findings support the notion that emotional state influences the body image of patients with BN.
大量研究表明，身体意象障碍在进食障碍（ED）的发生中起着核心作用。虽然情绪唤醒已被确定为神经性贪食症（BN）暴食的触发因素，但关于 BN 个体情绪对身体意象影响的实证知识却很少。本研究旨在通过实验研究积极和消极情绪诱导对 BN 患者的身体不满和对负面身体部位的选择性注意的影响。
在一项随机对照交叉设计中，BN 患者（n=23）和非 ED 对照组（n=26）在一周内分别通过电影片段诱发快乐和悲伤。在情绪诱导后，参与者在全身镜前观察自己的身体，同时使用移动眼动仪记录他们的注意力分配。参与者反复评价他们当前的身体不满。
快乐诱导导致自我报告的身体不满显著降低。此外，与快乐条件相比，在 BN 中，悲伤条件下对最不喜欢的身体部位的注意力偏向（更长的注视时间和更高的注视频率）明显大于对最喜爱的身体部位的注意力偏向。对于对照组，在镜子暴露期间，情绪诱导对注视时间和注视频率没有显著影响。
与 ED 现有模型的假设一致，研究结果支持了情绪状态影响 BN 患者身体意象的观点。
