Ego boundary disturbance in juvenile anorexia nervosa

The relationship between self-discrepancies, eating disorder and depressive symptoms in women

OBJECTIVE

This study examined the relationship between generic self-discrepancies, eating disorder symptoms and depressive symptoms.

METHOD

One hundred women volunteered to take part in the study. Each participant completed a self-discrepancy questionnaire and questionnaires related to eating disorder and depressive symptoms.

RESULTS

Eating disorder and depressive symptoms were correlated with a number of self-discrepancies. The relationship between eating disorder symptoms and actual: future discrepancies, but not that with actual: potential discrepancies, was explained by its link with appearance related stimuli. When the effects of depressive symptoms were controlled, only the relationship between actual: potential discrepancies and eating disorder symptom remained significant.

DISCUSSION

At least one generic self-discrepancy is related specifically to eating disorder rather than depressive symptoms. Implications of the findings for theory and clinical practice are briefly discussed.

Sociotropy-dependency and autonomy as predictors of eating disturbance among Canadian female college students

The authors (a) tested the generalizability of A. Sugarman, D. Quinlan, and L. Devenis's (1982) psychodynamic account of eating disturbances, which posits that overt autonomy strivings associated with eating problems are a defense against unconscious dependency concerns, and (b) evaluated the degree to which autonomy and sociotropy had unique associations with eating disturbances. Canadian female college students (N= 286) completed self-report measures of autonomy, sociotropy, depression, and bulimia as well as the Rorschach Inkblot Test. Findings suggest, contrary to Sugarman and colleagues' psychodynamic account, that experiences of dependency related to self-reported eating pathology do not necessarily lie outside of conscious awareness. Moreover, reported bulimic symptoms were uniquely associated with sociotropy but not autonomy-self-criticism among the participants.

Personality differences between eating-disordered women and a nonclinical comparison sample: a discriminant classification analysis

The present study evaluated the extent to which eating-disordered and nonclinical comparison samples could be differentiated on self-reported personality measures of autonomy and sociotropy and a projective measure of dependency. Sixty-two women meeting diagnostic criteria for eating disorder and a nonpsychiatric comparison group of 62 women completed the autonomy and sociotropy subscales of the Personal Style Inventory-II and the Rorschach Oral Dependency Scale (ROD). A discriminant classification analysis indicated 85.5% of eating-disordered subjects and 88.7% of control subjects were identified accurately from their scores on autonomy, sociotropy. and ROD. Results suggest that the experience of eating disorders is associated with a mixed clinical presentation characterized by issues related to sociotropy-dependency, and especially, achievement-related vulnerabilities. Potentially fruitful areas for future study include assessing the utility of autonomy and sociotropy as predictors of eating disturbances in prospective research and evaluating their utility in predicting treatment prognosis among patients with eating disorders.

Rorschach assessment of purging and nonpurging bulimics

Research in bulimia has flourished in recent years, and yet minimal attention has been devoted to explorations of the bulimic's basic personality organization. We utilized the Rorschach to differentiate between purging and nonpurging bulimics and controls. There were 15 subjects in each group. The Comprehensive System (Exner, 1986) was used for the scoring of the protocols. Statistically significant differences were not found between the two bulimia groups, but interesting trends were detected in the areas of depression, anger, and self-preoccupation. Results appear to be constrained by the low rate of purging behavior. Comparisons between the combined bulimia groups and the controls resulted in solidly characterizing the bulimics as displaying perceptual inaccuracies, disordered thinking, a vulnerability to interpersonal problems, a damaged self-image, and a pessimistic outlook. The strengths of the study were its use of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd ed., rev. [DSM-III-R]; American Psychiatric Association, 1987) nonpatients bulimic subtypes and a control group that was comparable in terms of demographics. Future Rorschach studies with bulimics displaying higher frequencies of binging and purging behaviors are suggested.

Delay of gratification in bulimic and restricting anorexia nervosa patients

This investigation posited that impairment in the delay of gratification is an etiological factor in anorexia nervosa that differentiates between bulimic anorexic and restricting anorexic subgroups. Forty-eight women aged 18-32 served as subjects. Among subjects aged 18-29, restricting anorexics scored significantly higher than bulimic anorexics on delay. Treatment implications indicate that restricting anorexics would benefit from intervention designed to decrease impulse control, while bulimic anorexics would benefit from intervention designed to increase delaying capacity.