THE PERCEPTUAL AND AFFECTIVE COMPONENTS OF BODY-IMAGE DISTURBANCES INANOREXIC AND NORMAL FEMALES

The literature is inundated with studies reporting the body image expe riences of anorexia nervosa patients and normal weight people. Such st udies have not, however, yielded consistent results. The present study reinvestigated the issue bearing in mind the theoretical and methodol ogical limitations of previous research. The perceptual and affective aspects of body image were investigated in 11 white, female anorexic p atients and 51 white, female psychology undergraduate university stude nts. A combination of the movable caliper technique and image-marking procedure was used to assess body sire perception, that is, the percep tual aspect, and the body Cathexis scale was used to assess body satis faction, that is, the affective aspect, it was found that anorexic fem ales overestimate the width of their waist and thighs significantly mo re than normal females (p < 0.05) and that they have a significantly l ower body satisfaction (p < 0.001). It was concluded that the DSM IV c riterion of a disturbance in body image has specific diagnostic releva nce in anorexia nervosa.