An investigation of the bodily self in eating disorders
type: CreativeWork
description: The overall objective of this thesis was to examine whether individuals affected with an eating disorder (ED) have an altered experience of the bodily self in comparison to healthy control (HC) individuals. The secondary objective was to assess whether this hypothesised disturbance could be a state or trait phenomenon. This thesis proposes a transdiagnostic biopsychosocial model of the bodily self in EDs. The first three studies of the thesis used the rubber hand illusion (RHI) paradigm, which involves the illusion of ownership of a fake hand, to examine the proposed model. In the first study, it was found that individuals with an ED (n = 78) experienced the RHI (both perceptually and cognitively) significantly more strongly than the HC participants (n = 61). Individual differences in the experience of the RHI were significantly related to ED psychopathology, and the experience of the RHI was significantly predicted by interoceptive deficits and self-objectification after controlling for other ED and general psychopathology constructs. The second study extended on this study to examine whether these findings indicate a state or trait disturbance, by examining the RHI in individuals who had recovered from an ED (n = 28). Recovered individuals were intermediate to the acutely ill and HC group in the perceptual domain, whereas the recovered individuals were similar to acutely ill individuals in the cognitive domain, suggestive of a trait disturbance. The third study examined the effect of emotional distress on the experience of the bodily self as indexed by a modified version of the RHI task including an emotion induction component (e-RHI task). Emotional distress (whether in the form of body dissatisfaction or general distress) was not found to significantly alter the experience of the bodily self in those with an ED relative to HC individuals. The fourth study took a different methodological approach from the previous three studies and used a heartbeat detection task…
abstract: The overall objective of this thesis was to examine whether individuals affected with an eating disorder (ED) have an altered experience of the bodily self in comparison to healthy control (HC) individuals. The secondary objective was to assess whether this hypothesised disturbance could be a state or trait phenomenon. This thesis proposes a transdiagnostic biopsychosocial model of the bodily self in EDs. The first three studies of the thesis used the rubber hand illusion (RHI) paradigm, which involves the illusion of ownership of a fake hand, to examine the proposed model. In the first study, it was found that individuals with an ED (n = 78) experienced the RHI (both perceptually and cognitively) significantly more strongly than the HC participants (n = 61). Individual differences in the experience of the RHI were significantly related to ED psychopathology, and the experience of the RHI was significantly predicted by interoceptive deficits and self-objectification after controlling for other ED and general psychopathology constructs. The second study extended on this study to examine whether these findings indicate a state or trait disturbance, by examining the RHI in individuals who had recovered from an ED (n = 28). Recovered individuals were intermediate to the acutely ill and HC group in the perceptual domain, whereas the recovered individuals were similar to acutely ill individuals in the cognitive domain, suggestive of a trait disturbance. The third study examined the effect of emotional distress on the experience of the bodily self as indexed by a modified version of the RHI task including an emotion induction component (e-RHI task). Emotional distress (whether in the form of body dissatisfaction or general distress) was not found to significantly alter the experience of the bodily self in those with an ED relative to HC individuals. The fourth study took a different methodological approach from the previous three studies and used a heartbeat detection task…
author: Eshkevari, Ertimiss Salimi
language: en_AU
date published: 2011
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:07:24Z
provider: Australian Catholic University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Australian Catholic University

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/1885/150835