automatic evaluation of body-related words among young women an experimental study自动评价体有关的单词在年轻女性的实验研究.pdfVIP

Watts and Cranney BMC Public Health 2010, 10:308 /1471-2458/10/308 R E S E A R C H A R T I C L E Open Access Research article Automatic evaluation of body-related words among young women: an experimental study 1 2 Kaaren J Watts* and Jacquelyn Cranney Abstract Background: Previous research has demonstrated that exposure to images depicting the thin female ideal has negative effects on some females levels of body dissatisfaction. Much of this research, however, has utilised relatively long stimulus exposure times; thereby focusing on effortful and conscious processing of body-related stimuli. Relatively little is known about the nature of females affective responses to the textual components of body-related stimuli, especially when these stimuli are only briefly encountered. The primary aim of the current research was to determine whether young women automatically evaluate body-related words and whether these responses are associated with body image concerns, including self-reported levels of appearance schematicity, thin internalisation, body dissatisfaction, and dietary restraint. Methods: An affective priming task was used to investigate whether females automatically evaluate body-related words, and whether this is associated with self-reported body image concerns. In a within-participants experimental design, the valence congruence of the prime and target pairs was manipulated. Participants selected body words as primes in Experiment 1 (N = 27), while normatively selected body words were primes in Experiment 2 (N = 50). Each prime was presented briefly, followed by a target word which participants judged as good or bad. The dependent variable was response latency to the target. Results: Automatic evaluation was evident: responding to congruent pairs was faster th