Veale and Riley Quick Notes

Background BDD-Body Dysmorphic Disorder Defect is imagined-psychological rather than physical Mirror gazing and camouflaging are known behaviors

Aim/hypothesis To investigate the nature and function of mirror gazing in body dysmorphic disorder patients compared with a control group.

Methodology and design Self-Report Questionnaire-mixture of question types Matched pairs-matched on age and sex

Variables No variables due to method

Participants 52 patients diagnosed with BDD –Self-Selecting 55 controls (personal contacts)-Opportunity Sample Matched on age and sex

Procedure 1. Remember the question types from our class survey-

Data Mean long session-BDD 72.5 and Control 21.3 Maximum long session-BDD 173.8 and Control 35.5 Mean number of short sessions-BDD 14.6 and Control 3.9 Duration of short(similar) BDD-4.8 and Control 5.5 Distress before long-BDD 6.44 and Control 1.6 Distress after long-BDD 7.63 and Control 2.4 Attention to whole vs Part- BDD-70.5 and Control 44.5

Apparatus Length of time Motivation for looking Focus of Attention Distress before and after Behavior Type of light preferred Types of reflective surfaces Mirror avoidance

Main Findings for BDD Long sessions are longer Short sessions happen more frequently, but have similar length if not even shorter Focus on internal in long but not short Distress is higher across the board Behavior varied slightly Preference of light is similar Higher variety of surfaces reported Selective avoidance was higher

Conclusions Mirror gazing is complex. Varied safety behaviors designed to prevent feared outcome. BDD always hope to look diff than internal BDD demand to see exactly how they look BDD believe they will feel worse if they resist BDD have the need to camouflage Use mirrors that show whole body Focus on reflection rather than feelings Use a mirror for function Use different mirrors Don’t use every time there is the urge

Strengths Usefulness Control Variety of questions Quantitative data Matched pairs

Weaknesses Possible report biases Lack of qualitative data Lack of ecological validity Matched pairs possibly not strenuous

Ecological Validity Nature of self report is that its low.

Ethics D – R – D– I - C - H –

Usefulness Suggestions for therapy heighten usefulness Generalisability helps too

Relationship to approach Body Dysmorphic Disorder-Individual Differences

Relationship to issues Generalisations Research Design Sampling Ethics