Abstract
The majority of body image research has failed to measure what occurs beyond the immediate presentation of a body image threat, or after a body image threat is no longer present. This is particularly true for physiological outcomes. The present study examined psychological and cortisol responses to, and recovery from, a body composition assessment as a social-evaluative body image threat. Women ( N = 64) were randomized into either a control or threat group. Participants completed a measure of social physique anxiety and provided a sample of saliva (to assess cortisol) at baseline, and immediately following and 20 min following their condition. The threat group reported higher social physique anxiety following the threat in comparison with both baseline levels and recovery levels. Cortisol was higher immediately following the threat in comparison with baseline levels. Findings support the inclusion of a recovery time point in body image research to provide a more complete picture of the psychobiology of body image experiences.
Highlights
Body image is an individual’s internal representation of his or her outer self (Thompson, Heinberg, Altabe, & TantleffDunn, 1999)
Shame and cortisol are responsive to such threats, other psychological and physiological outcomes have been examined within social self-preservation theory (SSPT) (Dickerson, Gable, Irwin, Aziz, & Kemeny, 2009; Dickerson, Kemeny, Aziz, Kim, & Fahey, 2004)
Nine participants who confirmed their eligibility, scheduled a testing appointment and had knowledge of the clothing needed for participation, did not attend their appointment
Summary
Body image is an individual’s internal representation of his or her outer self (Thompson, Heinberg, Altabe, & TantleffDunn, 1999). Qualitative research has explored situations of heightened body image concerns (Bain, Wilson, & Chaikind, 1989; Lamarche, Kerr, Faulkner, Gammage, & Klentrou, 2012; Myers & Rosen, 1999) In their qualitative study, Lamarche and colleagues (2012) examined comfortable and uncomfortable body experiences in young adult women. The most commonly assessed in this recent literature is cortisol (a stress hormone thought to represent hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activation; Sapolsky, 2003) Given this recent interest in physiological variables in a body image context, social self-preservation theory (SSPT; Dickerson, Gruenewald, & Kemeny, 2004), in contrast to other theories of body image, may be useful in the examination of responses to social-evaluative body image threats. SSPT has been applied to a body image context (Bailey, Lamarche, & Gammage, 2014; Cloudt et al, 2014; Lamarche et al, 2015; Lamarche et al, 2014; Lamarche et al, 2012; Martin Ginis et al, 2012)
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