Difficulty Disengaging Attention From Appearance Words Among Women With High Social Anxiety

Pathological eating behaviors (PEB) and body dissatisfaction are more prevalent among women with higher social anxiety (HSA) than women with lower social anxiety (LSA). Attentional bias may play a role in these relationships. Attentional bias toward appearance is related to PEB and body dissatisfact...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Silgado, Jose
Other Authors: Copeland, Amy
Format: Others
Language:en
Published: LSU 2011
Subjects:
Online Access:http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-04272011-135545/
id ndltd-LSU-oai-etd.lsu.edu-etd-04272011-135545
record_format oai_dc
spelling ndltd-LSU-oai-etd.lsu.edu-etd-04272011-1355452013-01-07T22:53:19Z Difficulty Disengaging Attention From Appearance Words Among Women With High Social Anxiety Silgado, Jose Psychology Pathological eating behaviors (PEB) and body dissatisfaction are more prevalent among women with higher social anxiety (HSA) than women with lower social anxiety (LSA). Attentional bias may play a role in these relationships. Attentional bias toward appearance is related to PEB and body dissatisfaction. Further, difficulty disengaging attention from threat is thought to maintain anxiety among HSA individuals. It follows that some HSA women may find scrutiny regarding their appearance threatening and difficulty disengaging attention from appearance cues may play an especially important role in PEB and/or body dissatisfaction among HSA women. The present study tested this theory, hypothesizing that: (1) HSA women would exhibit greater difficulty disengaging attention from appearance words than LSA women, and (2) HSA women with greater difficulty disengaging attention from appearance words would exhibit greater PEB and body dissatisfaction than HSA women with lower difficulty disengaging attention and LSA women. Difficulty disengaging was examined among 52 undergraduate women (HSA = 26, LSA = 26). Although HSA women reported higher scores on measures of PEB and body dissatisfaction than LSA women, HSA women did not exhibit more difficulty disengaging attention and difficulty disengaging did not moderate the relationships between social anxiety and PEB/body dissatisfaction. Follow-up analyses revealed that HSA women were more likely to engage in binge-eating and restricted eating than LSA women, but difficulty disengaging attention was only related to purging behaviors (regardless of social anxiety status). Among women who engaged in PEB, LSA women with higher difficulty disengaging reported the highest number of PEB. Copeland, Amy Beck, Melissa R Buckner, Julia D Davis, Thompson E III LSU 2011-04-28 text application/pdf http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-04272011-135545/ http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-04272011-135545/ en unrestricted I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report.
collection NDLTD
language en
format Others
sources NDLTD
topic Psychology
spellingShingle Psychology
Silgado, Jose
Difficulty Disengaging Attention From Appearance Words Among Women With High Social Anxiety
description Pathological eating behaviors (PEB) and body dissatisfaction are more prevalent among women with higher social anxiety (HSA) than women with lower social anxiety (LSA). Attentional bias may play a role in these relationships. Attentional bias toward appearance is related to PEB and body dissatisfaction. Further, difficulty disengaging attention from threat is thought to maintain anxiety among HSA individuals. It follows that some HSA women may find scrutiny regarding their appearance threatening and difficulty disengaging attention from appearance cues may play an especially important role in PEB and/or body dissatisfaction among HSA women. The present study tested this theory, hypothesizing that: (1) HSA women would exhibit greater difficulty disengaging attention from appearance words than LSA women, and (2) HSA women with greater difficulty disengaging attention from appearance words would exhibit greater PEB and body dissatisfaction than HSA women with lower difficulty disengaging attention and LSA women. Difficulty disengaging was examined among 52 undergraduate women (HSA = 26, LSA = 26). Although HSA women reported higher scores on measures of PEB and body dissatisfaction than LSA women, HSA women did not exhibit more difficulty disengaging attention and difficulty disengaging did not moderate the relationships between social anxiety and PEB/body dissatisfaction. Follow-up analyses revealed that HSA women were more likely to engage in binge-eating and restricted eating than LSA women, but difficulty disengaging attention was only related to purging behaviors (regardless of social anxiety status). Among women who engaged in PEB, LSA women with higher difficulty disengaging reported the highest number of PEB.
author2 Copeland, Amy
author_facet Copeland, Amy
Silgado, Jose
author Silgado, Jose
author_sort Silgado, Jose
title Difficulty Disengaging Attention From Appearance Words Among Women With High Social Anxiety
title_short Difficulty Disengaging Attention From Appearance Words Among Women With High Social Anxiety
title_full Difficulty Disengaging Attention From Appearance Words Among Women With High Social Anxiety
title_fullStr Difficulty Disengaging Attention From Appearance Words Among Women With High Social Anxiety
title_full_unstemmed Difficulty Disengaging Attention From Appearance Words Among Women With High Social Anxiety
title_sort difficulty disengaging attention from appearance words among women with high social anxiety
publisher LSU
publishDate 2011
url http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-04272011-135545/
work_keys_str_mv AT silgadojose difficultydisengagingattentionfromappearancewordsamongwomenwithhighsocialanxiety
_version_ 1716478064410492928