Take a look at the bright side:Effects of positive body exposure on selective visual attention in women with high body dissatisfaction

Women with high body dissatisfaction look less at their 'beautiful' body parts than their 'ugly' body parts. This study tested the robustness of this selective viewing pattern and examined the influence of positive body exposure on body-dissatisfied women's attention for 'ugly' and 'beautiful' body parts. In women with high body dissatisfaction (N = 28) and women with low body dissatisfaction (N = 14) eye-tracking was used to assess visual attention towards pictures of their own and other women's bodies. Participants with high body dissatisfaction were randomly assigned to 5 weeks positive body exposure (n = 15) or a no-treatment condition (n = 13). Attention bias was assessed again after 5 weeks. Body-dissatisfied women looked longer at 'ugly' than 'beautiful' body parts of themselves and others, while participants with low body dissatisfaction attended equally long to own/others' beautiful' and 'ugly' body parts. Although positive body exposure was very effective in improving participants' body satisfaction, it did not systematically change participants' viewing pattern. The tendency to preferentially allocate attention towards one's 'ugly' body parts seems a robust phenomenon in women with body dissatisfaction. Yet, modifying this selective viewing pattern seems not a prerequisite for successfully improving body satisfaction via positive body exposure. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Do automatic self-associations relate to suicidal ideation?

Dysfunctional self-schemas are assumed to play an important role in suicidal ideation. According to recent information-processing models, it is important to differentiate between 'explicit' beliefs and automatic associations. Explicit beliefs stem from the weighting of propositions and their corresponding 'truth' values, while automatic associations reflect more simple associations in memory. Both types of associations are assumed to have different functional properties and both may be involved in suicidal ideation. Thus far, studies into self-schemas and suicidal ideation focused on the more explicit, consciously accessible traces of self-schemas and predominantly relied on self-report questionnaires or interviews. To complement these 'explicit' findings and more directly tap into self-schemas, this study investigated automatic self-associations in a large scale community sample that was part of the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA). The results showed that automatic self-associations of depression and anxiety were indeed significantly related to suicidal ideation and past suicide attempt. Moreover, the interactions between automatic self-depressive (anxious) associations and explicit self-depressive (anxious) beliefs explained additional variance over and above explicit self-beliefs. Together these results provide an initial insight into one explanation of why suicidal patients might report difficulties in preventing and managing suicidal thoughts. © 2009 The Author(s)

Disorder-specific automatic self-associations in anxiety and depression: Results of the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety.

Background. Cognitive theory points to the importance of negative self-schemas in the onset and maintenance of depression and anxiety disorders. Hereby, it is important to distinguish between automatic and explicit self-schemas, reflecting different cognitive-motivational systems. This study tested whether patients with a current major depression and/or anxiety disorder are characterized by automatic self-anxious and self-depressive associations and whether these associations are disorder specific. Method. Patients (n=2329) and non-clinical controls (n=652) were tested as part of The Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety, a multi-center, longitudinal, cohort study with patients from different health care settings. Patient groups and non-clinical controls (18-65 years of age) were compared with regard to automatic self-anxious and self-depressive associations measured with the Implicit Association Test. Results. Individuals with an anxiety disorder showed enhanced self-anxious associations, whereas individuals with a depression showed enhanced self-depressive associations. Individuals with co-morbid disorders scored high on both automatic self-associations. Although remitted individuals showed weaker automatic self-associations than people with a current disorder, their automatic self-anxious/depressed associations were still significantly stronger than those of the control group. Importantly, automatic self-associations showed predictive validity for the severity of anxious and depressive symptoms over and above explicit self-beliefs. Conclusions. This study represents the first evidence that automatic self-anxious and self-depressive associations are differentially involved in anxiety disorders and depression. This may help to explain the refractoriness of these disorders and points to the potential importance of automatic self-associations in the development of psychopathological symptoms

Negative Body Image - Relationships with Heightened Disgust Propensity, Disgust Sensitivity, and Self-Directed Disgust

The research project tests in two correlational studies among undergraduates a series of critical relationships: 1) trait disgust propensity would increase the risk of developing a negative body image by increasing the likelihood of feeling self-disgust, and 2) trait disgust sensitivity would heighten the impact of self-disgust on the development of persistent negative body appraisals

Negative Body Image - Relationships with Heightened Disgust Propensity, Disgust Sensitivity, and Self-Directed Disgust

The research project tests in two correlational studies among undergraduates a series of critical relationships: 1) trait disgust propensity would increase the risk of developing a negative body image by increasing the likelihood of feeling self-disgust, and 2) trait disgust sensitivity would heighten the impact of self-disgust on the development of persistent negative body appraisals