Women's body attitudes: A review of measurement techniques

Abstract

Techniques for measuring women's attitudes towards their own bodies have been reviewed. Four major, measuring strategies were identified: self-report questionnaires, projective tests, silhouette choices, or interview assessments. The component instruments were almost uniformly characterized by being restricted in the range of attitudes examined, poorly developed technically, and lacking in information as to the range of attitudes amongst representative samples of the normal population. Although a considerable number of studies found a strong link between women's self-esteem and their satisfaction with the lower parts of their bodies, the central importance given to satisfaction appeared to have been a construct imposed on women by researchers, rather than a finding that emerged empirically from any wide-ranging examination of body attitudes. Considerable importance is being given to the identification of abnormal attitudes towards the body for the diagnosis of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Further progress in understanding how women actually feel about their bodies will be dependent upon the emergence of well-designed and properly tested measuring instruments.

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