larger than it really is. For example, Slade and Russell (1973) asked anorexics to adjust
the distance between two lights on a beam in a darkened room until the lights repre-
sented the width of aspects of their body such as their hips, waist and shoulders. The
results showed that anorexics consistently overestimated their size compared with con-
trol subjects. Other studies coming from the same perspective have asked subjects to
mark either two ends of a life-size piece of paper (Gleghorn et al. 1987), to adjust the
horizontal dimensions on either a television or video image of themselves (Freeman et al.
1984; Gardner et al. 1987), or to change the dimensions on a distorting mirror (Brodie
et al. 1989). This research has consistently shown that individuals with clinically defined
eating disorders show greater perceptual distortion than non-clinical subjects. However,
the research has also shown that the vast majority of women, with or without an eating
disorder, think that they are fatter than they actually are.
Some research has emphasized a discrepancy between perceptions of reality versus
those of an ideal without a comparison to the individual’s actual size as objectively
measured by the researcher. This research has tended to use whole-body silhouette
pictures of varying sizes whereby the subject is asked to state which one is closest to how
they look now and which one best illustrates how they would like to look. For example,
Stunkard et al. (1983) used this approach with normal male and female students;
Counts and Adams (1985) used it with bulimics, dieters and ex-obese females; and
Collins (1991) used it with pre-adolescent children. It has consistently been shown that
most girls and women would like to be thinner than they are and most males would like
to be either the same or larger (see Figure 6.4).
The final and most frequent way in which body dissatisfaction is understood is simply
in terms of negative feelings and cognitions towards the body. This has been assessed using
questionnaires such as the body shape questionnaire (Cooper et al. 1987), the body areas
satisfaction scale (Brown et al. 1990) and the body dissatisfaction subscale of the eating
disorders inventory (Garner 1991). These questionnaires ask questions such as ‘Do
you worry about parts of your body being too big?’, ‘Do you worry about your thighs
spreading out when you sit down?’ and ‘Does being with thin women make you feel
Fig. 6-4 Measuring body dissatisfactionEATING BEHAVIOUR 147