| Body image includes body perception components at the cognitive level,body satisfaction at the emotional and attitudinal level,and related behavioral regulation and management.Negative body images are individuals’ negative cognition,emotional experience,and corresponding behavioral regulation of their own bodies.Body image has always been a hot topic in the field of psychology,including research on body perception(mainly manifested as perception of weight or size),body satisfaction,and related emotions and behaviors.Previous studies have pointed out that if individuals have negative cognitive,emotional,and physical management behaviors about their bodies,they also have negative body images.Negative body images can result in the passive and terrible emotional experiences such as anxiety,gloomy mood,depression,low self-esteem,and low self efficacy,and may even lead to eating disorders.Firstly,from a cognitive perspective,research has found that many women begin to lose weight because they subjectively feel too fat and dissatisfied with their body.However,in fact,most of them have a healthy and symmetrical body,and their behavior depends more on what they perceive than on their actual body.Perhaps it is because many women have errors or deviations in their perception of their body.That is,the level of physical satisfaction of an individual depends not only on the individual’s actual BMI,but also on the individual’s perceived body size and related perceptual evaluations.Previous studies have focused on the discussion of individual components of body image,such as body perception or body satisfaction,without comprehensive consideration of the relationship between the two.Secondly,in terms of emotional experience,the perception of negative body images and the rumination of attitudes may lead to the development and maintenance of negative body images.The multi-dimensional model of ruminating thinking points out that ruminating thinking includes three levels: cognitive,emotional,and behavioral.The emotional level refers to an individual’s persistent negative attitude towards an event,the cognitive level refers to an individual’s focus on finding the cause of the event,and the behavioral level refers to functional rumination,which refers to an individual’s focus on the actual impact and consequences of related negative events.Female college students are the main body of the younger generation of female students,and negative body images are more prominent in female college students.Thus,it is very significantly to explore and interpose the formation mechanism of female college students’ body images.This study is conducted by three experiment parts to research the effects of body perception and ruminating thinking on female college students’ body images,attempting to reveal the cognitive mechanism of body images;And used virtual reality technology to conduct intervention research on negative body images.In Experiment 1,we focused on the body perception of BMI,the cognitive component of body image,and the body dissatisfaction of ruminant thinking and emotional attitude components.Through questionnaire analysis,we explored the relationship model between body perception,body dissatisfaction,BMI,and ruminant thinking variables.The research results construct a chain mediated model of body image,which is embodied in the direct role of BMI in body dissatisfaction,the independent mediator of BMI through body perception,and the role of chain mediators of BMI through body perception and ruminant thinking in influencing body dissatisfaction.Experiment 2 was divided into three parts,in which Experiment 2a and Experiment 2b used repeated measurements design in the treatment group and the control group to explore the effectiveness of intervention methods.Firstly,we screened out subjects with physical dissatisfaction greater than 2 through a questionnaire,and divided them into high BMI group(BMI>24 indicates overweight)and low BMI group(BMI<24 indicates normal)with regard to the standard of BMI,namely,the experimental group and the control group.Experiment 2a combines virtual reality technology,adopts the first person virtual whole body illusion experimental paradigm,and uses multi-sensory combined stimulation to explore the intervention effect of body illusion on individual body perception and body dissatisfaction.The experimental results show that,in addition to the implicit measurement of body dissatisfaction,there are significant differences between the pre and post interventions.Virtual reality body illusion directly reduces individuals’ estimation of body BMI,effectively improves negative body perception and explicit body dissatisfaction,and verifies the effectiveness of the intervention conditions.Compared to asynchronous conditions,subjects receiving synchronous visual and tactile stimuli had a higher sense of ownership of virtual avatars.There are significant differences between synchronous and asynchronous conditions in subjective BMI estimation and explicit measurement of physical dissatisfaction.There is no significant difference between synchronous and asynchronous conditions in implicit measurement of body cognition and body dissatisfaction.When directly comparing the experimental group and the control group,except for subjective BMI estimation,there were no significant differences in ownership,body perception,and body dissatisfaction between the high and low BMI groups,both explicit and implicit.Experiment 2b used self dialogue in a virtual reality environment for intervention research,exploring the intervention effects of self dialogue paradigm on body perception,body dissatisfaction,and ruminating thinking.Specifically,in addition to the implicit measurement of physical dissatisfaction,there are significant differences in subjective BMI estimation,body perception,ruminating thinking,and explicit measurement of physical dissatisfaction between the pre and post tests,proving the availability of the intervention operation method.To compare the two groups of the treatment and the control group directly,there were noticeablely different in subjective BMI estimation and body perception between them,but there were no significant differences in ruminant thinking,explicit and implicit body dissatisfaction.Experiment 2c uses cognitive behavioral therapy as the theoretical basis and interviews to further intervene with the subjects to make up for the deficiency of quantitative research.Eventually,the results showed that on the ground of the setting of interviews and the use of psychological counseling techniques,further intervention was carried out on the physical dissatisfaction of visitors to a certain extent,showing a good effect.In addition,through the setting of questions,more relevant factors and underlying causes have been discovered,making up for the shortcomings of quantitative research.In summary,the experimental results of this study demonstrate a chain mediated relationship model between the two important components of body image--body perception and body dissatisfaction,and BMI and ruminant thinking,verifying the effectiveness of experimental manipulation of the whole body illusion paradigm and self dialogue paradigm in virtual reality environments for intervention in negative body image and ruminant thinking.This study further found individual differences between overweight and normal BMI,and the additional interview findings also offer some insights for the future research. |
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