Health Psychology Report (Nov 2015)
A psychological typology of females diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa or binge eating disorder
Abstract
Background The present paper reports the results of research aimed at identifying intra-group differences among females suffering from different eating disorders (anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa or binge eating disorder) in terms of the subjects’ psychological traits, adoption of socio-cultural norms (through media pressure, internationalization of norms, and exposure to information concerning body image standards), and the level of body dissatisfaction. The following research question was asked: is it possible to distinguish specific profiles of psychological characteristics, as well as levels of body dissatisfaction, social pressure, media exposure and internalization of common standards of body image? Participants and procedure The clinical population consisted of 121 females aged 20-26. The research was conducted in the years 2007-2012. The following research methods and procedures were applied: 1) a clinical interview, 2) the Contour Drawing Rating Scale, 3) the Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI), 4) a Polish translation of the Socio-cultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire (SATAQ-3). Results Cluster analysis of the research data allowed four significantly different clusters to be distinguished in the group of 121 examined females suffering from eating disorders. In the next step, analysis of variance (the ANOVA test) was used to compare the differences between the examined clusters in terms of the investigated variables and their indicators. Conclusions Due to significant differences between the examined females in terms of the strength levels and the configuration of psychological and socio-cultural variables investigated in the present study, the females were classified into four different psychological types referred to as neurotic, perfectionist, impulsive and adolescent-narcissistic.
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