Body Dissatisfaction Revisited: On the Importance of Implicit Beliefs about Actual and Ideal Body Image.

Body dissatisfaction (i.e., a negative attitude towards one's own physical appearance) is assumed to originate from a perceived discrepancy between the actual physical appearance (i.e., actual body image) and the desired ideal state of the body (i.e., ideal body image). We assessed implicit beliefs about these two aspects of the body image independently using two Relational Responding Tasks (RRT) in a sample of participants who were either low or high in explicitly reported body dissatisfaction. As hypothesized, differences in body dissatisfaction exerted a differential influence on the two RRT scores. The implicit belief that one is thin was less pronounced in participants who were strongly dissatisfied with their body relative to participants who were more satisfied with their body. The implicit desire to be thin (i.e., thin ideal body image), in contrast, tended to be more pronounced in participants who exhibited a high degree of body dissatisfaction as compared to participants who exhibited a low degree of body dissatisfaction. Hierarchical regression analyses also revealed that the RRT scores were predictive of self-reported body dissatisfaction, even over and above the predictive validity of some (but not all) explicit predictors of body dissatisfaction that were included in the present study. More generally, these findings contribute to the empirical validation of the RRT as a measure of implicit beliefs in the context of body dissatisfaction.

The Actual and Ideal Sexual Self Concept in the Context of Genital Pain Using Implicit and Explicit Measures.

BACKGROUND: The experience of pain during sexual intercourse generates significant distress and sexual impairments, which is likely to affect sexual identity and become a threat to the sense of self. AIM: To explore the role of the concept of the sexual self in the context of genital pain by measuring different states of self (ie, actual vs ideal) at different levels of responding (ie, explicit vs implicit) and examine their associations with sexual, emotional, and pain-related variables. METHODS AND MAIN OUTCOMES: Thirty young women who identified with genital pain and 29 women without pain completed (i) two versions of the Relational Responding Task as a measurement of implicit actual and ideal sexual self; (ii) explicit ratings of the actual and the ideal sexual self; and (iii) measurements of sexual self-esteem, global self-esteem, depression, sexual satisfaction, sexual distress or depression, sexual frequency, and pain experiences. RESULTS: Women with genital pain scored lower on the explicit and implicit actual-self measurements than women without pain but did not differ in their ideal self. Furthermore, the pain group reported higher ideal- than actual-self scores at the explicit level. Actual- and ideal-self measurements had differential effects on sexual, emotional, and behavioral outcome variables. In general, rating the ideal self higher than the actual self was related to more negative outcomes. Pain-related variables were predicted only by the implicit measurements, showing that the high pain group reported more pain, fear of pain, and a stronger tendency to continue with sex despite the pain when perceiving themselves as sexually less competent and when this perception did not match their ideal self. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Therapeutic interventions might benefit from discussing women's internal guides for self, decreasing potential discrepancies, and developing identity-related motivational treatments that target the emotional discomfort and maladaptive behavioral strategies that result from trying to conform with their guides of self. Setting idealistically high sexual standards, feeling pressure to perform as a sexual partner, and fearing to be sexually unqualified could be key factors in developing, maintaining, and exacerbating sexual dysfunctions. STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS: This is the first study to systematically examine different components of the concept of the sexual self in the context of genital pain. Despite the small sample and the use of a non-clinical group of women, we found a theoretically and clinically interesting pattern of results. CONCLUSIONS: Differentiating between different components of the sexual self is relevant to explain sexual, emotional, and pain-related responses. Dewitte M, De Schryver M, Heider N, De Houwer J. The Actual and Ideal Sexual Self Concept in the Context of Genital Pain Using Implicit and Explicit Measures. J Sex Med 2017;14:702-714.

On the automaticity of relational stimulus processing.

While it is widely accepted that the semantic analysis of a stimulus can take place in an automatic fashion, it is typically assumed that non-automatic processes are required to process the relation of one stimulus relative to other stimuli. Nevertheless, there is evidence to support the idea that such relational stimulus processing can also take place under automaticity conditions. We examined this hypothesis further in four sequential priming experiments in which participants were asked to categorize target objects as larger or smaller than a reference object (i.e., a football or a car). Crucially, some primes were objects that were larger than the small reference object but smaller than the large reference object (e.g., a bike). Results showed that the impact of these primes upon target responding was dependent on the size of the reference object. When the size of the reference object was small, these primes facilitated responses towards large targets relative to small targets. Vice versa, when the size of the reference object was large, the same set of primes facilitated responses towards small targets relative to large targets. This result was obtained when the size of the reference object was manipulated block-wise (Experiments 1 and 3), trial-wise (Experiments 2 and 4), and even when the primes were presented near subjective recognition thresholds (Experiment 4). Taken together, our findings provide strong evidence for the hypothesis that complex relational stimulus processing can take place under automaticity conditions. A possible underlying mechanism is proposed.

Implicit beliefs about ideal body image predict body image dissatisfaction.

We examined whether implicit measures of actual and ideal body image can be used to predict body dissatisfaction in young female adults. Participants completed two Implicit Relational Assessment Procedures (IRAPs) to examine their implicit beliefs concerning actual (e.g., I am thin) and desired ideal body image (e.g., I want to be thin). Body dissatisfaction was examined via self-report questionnaires and rating scales. As expected, differences in body dissatisfaction exerted a differential influence on the two IRAP scores. Specifically, the implicit belief that one is thin was lower in participants who exhibited a high degree of body dissatisfaction than in participants who exhibited a low degree of body dissatisfaction. In contrast, the implicit desire to be thin (i.e., thin ideal body image) was stronger in participants who exhibited a high level of body dissatisfaction than in participants who were less dissatisfied with their body. Adding further weight to the idea that both IRAP measures captured different underlying constructs, we also observed that they correlated differently with body mass index, explicit body dissatisfaction, and explicit measures of actual and ideal body image. More generally, these findings underscore the advantage of using implicit measures that incorporate relational information relative to implicit measures that allow for an assessment of associative relations only.

The relational responding task: toward a new implicit measure of beliefs.

We introduce the Relational Responding Task (RRT) as a tool for capturing beliefs at the implicit level. Flemish participants were asked to respond as if they believed that Flemish people are more intelligent than immigrants (e.g., respond "true" to the statement "Flemish people are wiser than immigrants") or to respond as if they believed that immigrants are more intelligent than Flemish people (e.g., respond "true" to the statement "Flemish people are dumber than immigrants"). The difference in performance between these two tasks correlated with ratings of the extent to which participants explicitly endorsed the belief that Flemish people are more intelligent than immigrants and with questionnaire measures of subtle and blatant racism. The current study provides a first step toward validating RRT effects as a viable measure of implicit beliefs.