Attention And Recognition Biases Associated With Stature Dissatisfaction Among Young Men In China

The past two decades has witnessed the considerable interest on the cognitive-behavioral account of body image disturbances. The processing of information related to body size, shape, and food has been demonstrated as the main reason for body image disturbances. With eye movement technique, reaction time-based tasks and so on, researchers found that eating disorders have cognitive bias specific to body-related or food-related stimulus. In practical terms, those biased information processing, for persons with body image concerns, may be automatically activated by negative body schema and reflected by excessive attention to perceived body flaws, recall of schemata-related information, or fatness-based interpretations of ambiguous stimuli. However, in non-clinical samples, assumptions underlying cognitive-behavioral accounts have been tested mainly among women and only in relation to overlapping concerns with body weight and body size to the neglect of other common sources of appearance dissatisfaction. The utility of cognitive-behavior models can be clarified further by assessing how well tenets such as the content-specificity hypothesis apply to understanding body image concerns that extend beyond weight dissatisfaction. For example, shorter physical stature has negative implications for social status and adjustment. Social disadvantages of shorter stature extend to non-Western cultures. In China, for example, minimum height requirements have been used in hiring criteria for some white-collar jobs and shorter workers earn less than taller peers in the same position. Furthermore, height dissatisfaction is common among males in Asian countries. Among Chinese adolescents and emerging adults, dissatisfaction with physical stature was more common than concerns with overweight or facial attractiveness. Furthermore, boys and young men reported significantly fewer concerns with their general appearance, fatness, and facial appearance than did girls and young women but no gender differences were found for stature concerns. Actually, women are more sensitive to the perception and evaluation of body, while men less likely to focus on it. For example, men are less likely to report dissatisfaction with appearance and weight.. However, no gender differences of concern were found for stature concerns may suggest the importance of stature for men. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the nature of cognitive bias related to stature information among height dissatisfied men.This research explored information-processing biases correlated with height dissatisfaction among young men. In Study 1, men with high levels of stature dissatisfaction (HSD) and low levels of stature dissatisfaction (LSD) men performed a dot probe task. Eye movement (EM) tracking assessed attentional biases components including orientation, detection, maintenance and disengagement of gaze, related to height-related and neutral words. EM data showed that HSD men, compared with controls, had significantly shorter first fixation on fatness words, while other indices failed to find any difference between groups. Reaction time data showed HSD men, compared with controls, were significantly slower in response to probes that followed short stature words, but the groups did not differ in reaction times to probes that followed tall stature or neutral words. In Study 2, HSD men and LSD men completed an implicit learning task followed by a word recognition task. HSD men had enhanced recognition bias related to short stature words. (1) The main effect for Group were not significant, but a significant main effect emerged for Word Type, the overall sample was slower in judging short stature words than tall stature words, and neutral words. (2) The HSD group was more accurate than the LSD group was in recognizing short stature words while groups did not differ in recognition accuracy rates for tall stature words or neutral words. (3) The HSD group was more sensitive than the LSD group was in recognizing short stature words while groups did not differ in Memory sensitivity scores for tall stature words or neutral words. (4) Group differences were absent in analyses of response bias scores. Together, these findings suggest that HSD men are more inclined than LSD men to selectively avoid cues that reflect shortness in stature and to selectively recognize such cues later.In our research, we did something new as follows:firstly, in theory, this research is a development in the relevant field of negative physical self. Almost all studies in negative physical self were focused on weight or fat dimension, with little attention to height dimension. Meanwhile, almost all study about negative physical self focused on women participants, thus this study could expand the study population in the research field of negative physical self. In addition, its verification to whether this result would be generalized to the relatively mature findings in fat dimension has important theoretical significance. Secondly, in research methods, the eye tracking technique combined with the dot probe task on attention bias in Study 1 could explore the time course of attention pattern while the paradigms which purely depend on the reaction time could not. In the meantime, analysis indicators based on the Signal Detection Theory in Study 2 were more accurate and multidimensional, including reaction time, response accuracy, memory sensitivity and response bias. It seems to be more rigorous in statistical and analytical methods. Last, from the practical application, the exploration of information processes related to stature stimuli among height dissatisfied men is of practical significance. Because it may provides the basis of which we can design and rectify the mental behavior problems of height dissatisfied men, may also provides support for intervene in those fields.