Tennis star Andre Agassi said, "Image is everything." This may seem like an exaggeration, but for many people, how they feel about their appearance means everything. Body image is a powerful factor in how people feel about themselves. If one suffers from body image disturbance, it often leads to a host of difficulties, ranging from low self-esteem to bulimia nervosa, anorexia nervosa, and body dysmorphic disorder.
Successfully integrating explanations from social, interpersonal, feminist, and behavioral-cognitive psychology, Exacting Beauty is packed with invaluable research, case histories and descriptions, and treatment guidance. Clinicians, practitioners, and researchers will value this book for its rich, up-to-date coverage of how psychology grapples with the troubling relationship between psychological health and body image.
This softcover edition is a re-release of the 1998 hardcover edition.
List of Exhibits and Tables
List of Appendixes
Preface
An Introduction to the Concept of Body Image Disturbance: History, Definitions, and Descriptions
I. An Overview: Prevalence, Diversity, Assessment, and Treatment
- The Scope of Body Image Disturbance: The Big Picture
- An Overview of Assessment and Treatment Strategies
II. Societal and Social Approaches
- Sociocultural Theory: The Media and Society
- Social Comparison Processes
III. Interpersonal Approaches
- Appearance-Related Feedback
- Interpersonal Factors: Peers, Parents, Partners, and Perfect Strangers
IV. Feminist Approaches
- Feminist Perspectives
- Sexual Abuse and Sexual Harassment
V. Behavioral, Cognitive, and Integrative Approaches
- Behavioral Aspects of Disturbance: Conditioning, Context, and Avoidance
- Cognitive-Processing Models
- Future Directions: Integrative Theories, Multidimensional Assessment, and Multicomponent Interventions
References
Author Index
Subject Index
About the Authors
Exacting Beauty is a valuable and comprehensive text written in a scholarly fashion, offering discussion of a broad range of issues related to body-image research, assessment, and treatment.
—Australian Psychologist, November 1999
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