Relational-Interdependent self-construal as a function of bulimic symptomatology

Subtypes in bulimia nervosa: the role of eating disorder symptomatology, negative affect, and interpersonal functioning

BACKGROUND

The aim of the study was to investigate whether patients with bulimia nervosa (BN) could be subdivided into clinically meaningful groups reflecting the complex patterns of eating disorder symptoms and personality characteristics that face the clinician.

METHODS

Seventy patients diagnosed with BN using the Eating Disorder Examination were assessed with measures of negative affect, attachment patterns, and interpersonal problems. An exploratory hierarchical cluster analysis was performed.

RESULTS

The study found two main subtypes differing primarily in terms of symptom severity and level of negative affect, but these subtypes were further subdivided into four clinically relevant subtypes: A dietary restraint/negative affect/high symptomatic group, an emotionally overcontrolled group, a low dietary restraint/emotionally underregulated group, and a high functioning/securely attached group.

CONCLUSIONS

The study indicates that cluster-analytic studies, including a broad range of instruments measuring eating disorder symptoms as well as negative affect, relational patterns, and other personality characteristics, may contribute to an integration of previously suggested models of subtypes in BN.

The What, How, Why, and Where of Self-Construal

Since the publication of Markus and Kitayama’s pivotal article on culture and the self, the concepts of independent, relational, and interdependent self-construal have become important constructs in cultural psychology and research on the self. The authors review the history of these constructs, their measurement and manipulation, and their roles in cognition, emotion, motivation, and social behavior. They make suggestions for future research and point to problems still to be sorted out. Researchers interested in these constructs have many opportunities to make important contributions to the literature in a variety of fields, including health psychology, education, counseling, and international relations.

Pathoplasticity of bulimic features and interpersonal problems

OBJECTIVE

Recent research suggests that interpersonal problems and some forms of psychopathology are pathoplastic, or that they mutually affect one another in nonetiological ways. In the current study, the pathoplasticity of bulimic features and interpersonal problems was tested.

METHOD

Inventory of Interpersonal Problems-64 data from 130 women with scores in the top quartile on the Bulimia scale of the Eating Disorder Inventory-2 from a sample of 517 college undergraduates were cluster analyzed. Age, weight, and scores on psychopathology scales were tested for mean differences across the four quadrants of the interpersonal problems circumplex.

RESULTS

Consistent with the pathoplasticity hypothesis, cluster means did not differ on external variables. Furthermore, bulimic features and interpersonal problems independently predicted depression in the total sample.

CONCLUSION

The interpersonal problems reported in the current study suggest differential treatment process that could inform the therapeutic relationship and help prevent premature termination.