معنای زیبایی:باورهای ضمنی و صریح اعتماد به نفس و جذابیت در اختلال بدریخت انگاری

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is characterized by imagined or slight defects in one's appearance. We evaluated implicit and explicit biases among individuals diagnosed with BDD (n = 21), individuals with subclinical BDD symptoms (n = 21), and healthy control participants (n = 21). Specifically, we used the Implicit Association Test [IAT; Greenwald, A. G., McGhee, D. E., & Schwartz, J. L. K. (1998). Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition: the implicit association test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1464–1480] to examine automatic associations related to self-esteem, associations between attractive and important, and a physical attractiveness stereotype (associations between attractive and competent). BDD participants had significantly lower implicit self-esteem, relative to control participants, and the subclinical BDD participants were intermediate between these groups. Although no group differences were observed on the implicit Attractive Important IAT; as predicted, BDD participants had significantly stronger implicit associations between attractive and competent than the other groups, in line with a common stereotype about physical attractiveness. Both the Attractive Competent IAT and Self-Esteem IAT were significant predictors of BDD symptom severity, and distress and avoidance during a mirror exposure task. Findings are discussed in light of cognitive-behavioral models of BDD.

Individuals with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) are preoccupied with slight or imagined defects in their physical appearance, often tied to the face, skin, or hair (e.g., pimples, misshapen nose; American Psychiatric Association, 2000). They often misperceive the “defect” as repulsive and think about their appearance for many hours a day, even though others do not share their concerns. BDD is further characterized by significant avoidance of social activities, which may even lead to being housebound (e.g., Phillips et al., 2006; Phillips, McElroy, Keck, Pope, & Hudson, 1993).