The Psychology of Eating: From Healthy to Disordered Behavior

Body Dissatisfaction 99

consistently 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.

Negative responses to the body
The third and most frequent way in which body dissatisfaction is under-
stood is simply in terms of negative feelings and cognitions about the body.
This has been assessed using a multitude of questionnaires such as the
Body Shape Questionnaire (Cooper et al., 1987), the Body Areas Satisfaction
Scale (Brown, Cash, and Mikulka, 1990), the Body Attitudes Questionnaire

Figure 6.2 Body silhouettes for adults. (Source: A.J. Stunkard, J.R. Harris, and
F. Schulsinger, Use of the Danish adoption register for the study of obesity and
thinness, in S. Kety (ed.) The Genetics of Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders,
New York: Raven Press, 1983.)

Body

dissatisfaction

As negative responses to the body

“I don’t like my body”

As a discrepancy from the ideal

“I think I am larger than I would like to be”

As a distorted body image

“I think I am larger than I really am”

Figure 6.1 Body dissatisfaction.

Image not available in the electronic edition