Abstract
The present study examined associations between high levels of appearance concern and information processing biases in interpretation and attention. An opportunity sample ( N = 79) categorised ambiguous stimuli as related or unrelated to appearance. Participants then responded to the same stimuli in a modified visual dot-probe task assessing attentional bias. Participant responses were assessed in relation to level of appearance concern. The results indicated a valence specific bias towards interpretation of ambiguous stimuli as negative and appearance-related in individuals with higher levels of concern. There was also evidence of attentional bias towards information perceived as appearance-related in participants with higher levels of appearance concern. The study findings suggest that association between appearance-orientated information processing biases and level of appearance concern; this association may lead to mutually reinforcing bias and concern.
Highlights
Associations between processing styles and psychological disorders such as anxiety (e.g. Bar-Haim, Lamy, Pergamin, Bakermans-Kranenburg & van IJzendoorn, 2007) and depression (e.g. Mogg & Bradley, 2005; Strunk & Adler, 2009 ) are relatively established
The present study examined associations between information processing biases in interpretation and attention with high levels of appearance concern
The study findings suggest that individuals with high levels of appearance concern may perceive the world in a way that reinforces and exacerbates their concern
Summary
Associations between processing styles and psychological disorders such as anxiety (e.g. Bar-Haim, Lamy, Pergamin, Bakermans-Kranenburg & van IJzendoorn, 2007) and depression (e.g. Mogg & Bradley, 2005; Strunk & Adler, 2009 ) are relatively established. Associations between information processing and appearance concerns, have received less extensive research. Those who have investigated appearance-related cognitive biases have provided evidence of both increased discrimination (Markus, Hamill & Sentis, 1987) and recall of appearancerelated information (Altabe & Thompson, 1996) in individuals with high levels of concern. The priming task requirement may suggest that appearance-related attentional biases do not occur automatically at a pre-conscious stage of processing; rather, conscious direction of attention towards appearance information may be required as a trigger. Employment of the dot-probe task (Maner, Holm-Denoma, Van Orden, Gailliot, Gordon & Joiner, 2006; Shafran, Lee, Cooper, Palmer & Fairburn, 2007) and eye-tracking technology (Hewig, Cooper, Trippe, Hecht, Straube & Miltner, 2008) in individuals with eating disorders has demonstrated preferential attention towards specific bodily features and negative appearance stimuli without pre-task priming. Given that appearance concern can be characterised in part by both anxiety and depression (Carr, Harris & James, 2000), the conflicting evidence may reflect these differences
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
