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.
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 comprehensive text covering the area of body-image concerns. The book is a valuable resource, as well as interesting reading, for anyone with an interest in body image, dieting behaviours, and eating disorders. I would consider it a required reference text for researchers in the area; however, practitioners will also find the book helpful since the authors aim to make the information highly accessible and practical to use…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
Readers will thank the authors…for creating a professional volume that is unique in its accessibility (in format and in language), relevance (for a range of audiences), and breadth… For all of these reason, this book is an outstanding (dare I say essential?) resource for clinicians, researchers, and students interested in body-image disturbance and its treatment. Clinicians will appreciate the presentation and discussion of assessment tools and how they apply to therapy and prevention. Researchers will value the up-to-the-minute review of empirical support and assessment tools for different conceptual approaches to understanding body-image, and the authors' success at relating empirically-derived risk factors to specific treatments. Finally, students (particularly those looking for a thesis topic) and experiences researchers alike will appreciate the authors' thoughtful efforts to uncover areas where future research is needed… The accessibility, relevance, and breadth of this book succeed in impressing the reader with the progress made in this field in the past 20 years. Readers will learn how far we have come in understanding, assessing, and treating body image disturbance, as well as directions to pursue in the future. This book has earned a permanent place in my reference library, and I would jump at the chance to use this book as part of a seminar on body image and eating disorders.
—Lori M. Irving, PhD, Department of Psychology, Washington State University, Vancouver, WA
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