Alexander J. Mussap

The Attractive Female Body Weight and Female Body Dissatisfaction in 26 Countries Across 10 World Regions: Results of the International Body Project I

This study reports results from the first International Body Project (IBP-I), which surveyed 7,434 individuals in 10 major world regions about body weight ideals and body dissatisfaction. Participants completed the female Contour Drawing Figure Rating Scale (CDFRS) and self-reported their exposure to Western and local media. Results indicated there were significant cross-regional differences in the ideal female figure and body dissatisfaction, but effect sizes were small across high-socioeconomic-status (SES) sites. Within cultures, heavier bodies were preferred in low-SES sites compared to high-SES sites in Malaysia and South Africa (ds = 1.94-2.49) but not in Austria. Participant age, body mass index (BMI), and Western media exposure predicted body weight ideals. BMI and Western media exposure predicted body dissatisfaction among women. Our results show that body dissatisfaction and desire for thinness is commonplace in high-SES settings across world regions, highlighting the need for international attention to this problem.

A `Rubber-hand` illusion reveals a relationship between perceptual body image and unhealthy body change

The ‘rubber-hand’ illusion, in which individuals misattribute tactile sensations felt by their hand to a rubber prosthetic hand that they see being stimulated, was employed to examine the relationship between perceptual body image and unhealthy body change in 128 volunteers. Variance in unhealthy body development in males (22%) and in bulimic symptomatology in both females and males (10%), was explained by susceptibility to the illusion. The illusion, which is relatively free from cognitive and emotional ‘contamination’, could be used to identify individuals most responsive to therapies designed to correct inaccurate body perceptions–individuals whose perceptual body image is malleable.

Strength of faith and body image in Muslim and non-Muslim women

A questionnaire was completed by 98 Muslim and 91 non-Muslim Australian women to examine the relationship between Islam and body image. Path analyses revealed that for Muslim women (but not non-Muslim women) strength of religious faith was inversely related to body dissatisfaction, body self-objectification, and dietary restraint. These relationships were mediated by increased use of modest clothing and by reduced media consumption. These results are consistent with the proposition that adherence to Islam can indirectly protect womens body image from appearance-based public scrutiny and from exposure to Western media.

Body satisfaction among adolescents in eight different countries

The current study examined body satisfaction and the value of body size among adolescents in Australia, Fiji, Malaysia, Tonga, Tongans in New Zealand, China, Chile and Greece. In total, 2489 adolescent females and 2152 males participated in the study. The results demonstrated that males were more satisfied with their body than females. Males generally had a lower BMI than females, except for males in China and Malaysia. Attitudes towards large bodies for males and females varied by cultural group. These results demonstrate the strong cultural similarities in body satisfaction, but the differences that occur in relation to a large body.

Implications of accuracy, sensitivity, and variability of body size estimations to disordered eating

The current study was conducted to investigate the relationships between body size estimations and disordered eating symptomatology. The method of constant stimuli was used to derive three measures of self-perceived body size in 93 women: (1) accuracy of body size estimations (body image distortion); (2) sensitivity in discriminating body size within blocks of trials (body image sensitivity); and (3) variability in making body size estimations between blocks of trials (body image variability). Participants also completed measures of disordered eating. Although body image distortion correlated with dietary restraint and eating concern, body image variability accounted for additional variance in these variables, as well as variance in binge eating. The relationships involving body image variability were found to be mediated by body dissatisfaction and internalization of the thin ideal. Together, these results are consistent with the proposition that body image variability is a significant factor in disordered eating.

Acculturation, body image, and eating behaviours in Muslim-Australian women

The relationship between western acculturation, body dissatisfaction, and eating behaviours was examined in a sample of 101 Muslim-Australian women between 18 and 44 years of age (M=27.3, SD=7.5). A questionnaire was completed containing measures of cultural identification (heritage and mainstream), body dissatisfaction and disordered eating (dietary control, bingeing and purging), internalization of the thin ideal, and self-esteem. A series of path analyses identified significant positive relationships between mainstream identification and the measures of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating that were mediated by thin-ideal internalization. Path analyses also identified significant negative relationships between heritage identification and the measures of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating that were mediated by self-esteem. These results are indicative of the potential risks to body image incurred by women who adopt Western values, and of the benefits in retaining heritage cultural values that promote a positive self image.

Amblyopic deficits in detecting a dotted line in noise.

We compared detectability of a dotted line masked by random-dot noise for the amblyopic versus non-amblyopic eye of two strabismic amblyopes. Small but consistent deficits in the amblyopic eye of these observers were found, and shown to be limited to dotted-line targets composed of greater than seven dots (with performance being normal for targets of less than seven dots). These deficits were unrelated to impaired visual acuity, impaired sensitivity to dot density, and differential positional uncertainty between the eyes of our observers. The deficits were also unlikely to be due to CSF losses due to abnormal low-spatial-frequency filters involved in detecting long chains of collinear dots. Instead, the results of simulations indicate that the inefficiency in utilising large numbers of dots is due to deficits of global, integrative processes in strabismic amblyopes. These simulations also show that while neither undersampling nor positional uncertainty of inputs into integrative processes can themselves account for the amblyopic deficits, if such abnormal inputs lead to the development of stunted integrative processes then impaired sensitivity to long chains of collinear dots is indeed predicted.

On the perceived location of global motion.

We measured the effects of coherent motion of one set of dots on the perceived location of Gaussian envelopes formed by luminance modulation of a second set of dots. Perceived shifts in envelope location in the direction of coherent motion were obtained even when the dots forming the envelopes did not physically move in the direction of coherent motion. In such cases, perceived shifts coincided with stimulus configurations that permitted motion integration of the envelope dots with the coherently moving dots, for example, when envelope dots moved in random directions as opposed to being static. In subsequent experiments we explored the type of motion integration underlying the positional shifts obtained. We discounted the possibility that the visual system incorrectly attributes motion signals associated with coherently moving dots to envelope dots by demonstrating that positional shifts could be obtained even when the coherent dots were laterally displaced to either side of the envelope dots such that the regions occupied by the dots did not overlap. We also discounted spatio-temporal summation within the receptive fields of low-spatial-frequency motion-sensitive mechanisms by demonstrating that positional shifts persisted even when the dot displays were high-pass filtered. These results, coupled with the observation that the proportion of coherently moving dots required to produce positional shifts correlated well with global motion thresholds measured for the same dot configurations, suggests that visual processes which underlie motion-dependent positional shifts are based at least in part on cooperative interactions of the type implicated in global motion.

The Relationship Between Dissociation and Binge Eating

ABSTRACT Despite research findings demonstrating a relationship between dissociation and binge eating, the psychological processes that may underlie this association remain unclear. The present study examined 2 potential explanations: (a) that dissociation disinhibits behavioral control over eating and (b) that dissociation interferes with self-awareness and undermines body image. A total of 151 female university students completed measures of dissociation, body dissatisfaction, impulsivity, internalization of the thin ideal, body comparison, and binge eating. Correlations confirmed the presence of a relationship between dissociation and binge eating, and regression analyses revealed that this relationship is limited to body-specific (somatic) symptoms of dissociation. Path analyses identified body dissatisfaction, comparison, and impulsivity as significant mediators of this relationship. However, inclusion of all 3 mediated paths in a full model revealed that only body dissatisfaction is a unique mediator. The relevance of somatic symptoms, and the unique contribution of body dissatisfaction as a mediator, are consistent with an explanation of the relationship between dissociation and binge eating that is based on a vulnerability of body image. The results emphasize the need for future research to consider the relation of dissociation to a broader range of disordered eating symptoms than simply binge eating.

Increased left hemisphere impairment in high-functioning autism: A tract based spatial statistics study

There is evidence emerging from Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) research that autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are associated with greater impairment in the left hemisphere. Although this has been quantified with volumetric region of interest analyses, it has yet to be tested with white matter integrity analysis. In the present study, tract based spatial statistics was used to contrast white matter integrity of 12 participants with high-functioning autism or Aspergers syndrome (HFA/AS) with 12 typically developing individuals. Fractional Anisotropy (FA) was examined, in addition to axial, radial and mean diffusivity (AD, RD and MD). In the left hemisphere, participants with HFA/AS demonstrated significantly reduced FA in predominantly thalamic and fronto-parietal pathways and increased RD. Symmetry analyses confirmed that in the HFA/AS group, WM disturbance was significantly greater in the left compared to right hemisphere. These findings contribute to a growing body of literature suggestive of reduced FA in ASD, and provide preliminary evidence for RD impairments in the left hemisphere.