Date of Award

Spring 1996

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Psychology

Program/Concentration

Psychology

Committee Director

Thomas F. Cash

Committee Member

Glynn D. Coates

Committee Member

Elaine M. Justice

Call Number for Print

Special Collections LD4331.P65 A73

Abstract

Recent research in the area of body image and body-image disturbance has increasingly examined cognitive information-processing models. The focus of the current study was on the processing of appearance-related and nonappearance-related information in appearance-schematic versus appearance-aschematic women. As a modified and extended replication of a study by Labarge, Cash, and Brown (in press), information processing was investigated using a computerized Stroop-type task. Participants were 128 Old Dominion University women who had previously completed the Appearance Schemas Inventory (ASI). They were divided into two groups based on their above median (appearance-schematic) or below-median (appearance-aschematic) ASI scores, Then, at designated times, these women individually completed two Stroop tasks, with an intervening task serving as either an appearance priming condition or a neutral control condition. The first Stroop task always used nonappearance words. The second Stroop task either used appearance words for the experimental group, or a second set of nonappearance words for the control group. After the second Stroop task, participants completed a verbal distractor task, and then a recognition task involving the Stroop words. It was hypothesized that appearance-schematic (versus appearance-aschematic) individuals, particularly those exposed to the appearance prime, would take longer to color-name the words in the appearance-related matrix than in the nonappearance matrix. Further, it was hypothesized that primed appearance-schematic individuals would show faster, more accurate recognition of the appearance than nonappearance words to which they were exposed. Neither hypothesis was supported, although there was a trend in the predicted direction for primed schematics to be slower than the other three groups on Matrix 2 in relation to Matrix I. Possible explanations for these results are discussed. Finally, primed appearance-schematic individuals were expected to "inaccurately recognize" (i.e,, say they were exposed to a word when they really were not) more appearance than nonappearance words. This hypothesis was partially supported in that appearance-schematic individuals (though regardless of priming condition) were found to "inaccurately recognize" more appearance words than nonappearance words, g & .05. This may indicate that appearance-schematic individuals are hypersensitive to appearance relevant cues, and imagine that they receive more appearance-related input than they actually do. Implications for body-image therapy are discussed.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

DOI

10.25777/2j7y-2p90

Download

Share

COinS