The Neuropsychology of Self-Objectification
Abstract
According to the objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997) girls and women are thought to adopt a self-objectified view of themselves as objects to be evaluated on the basis of their appearance. More, this experience is proposed to have a direct link with the health and well being of female subjects. The paper analyzes and discusses the objectification theory within the context of recent research on memory and spatial cognition. On one side, it describes self-objectification as a specific cognitive process: a woman internalizes an objectified self image, when she uses an allocentric frame of reference (observer mode) to remember events in which she evaluates herself based upon bodily appearance. On the other side it directly connects the objectification theory with the Allocentric Lock Hypothesis (Riva, 2012), suggesting that eating disorders have as antecedent an allocentric (objective, from outside) negative image schema of the body that is no more updated by egocentric sensory inputs from perception. Both the similarities between the allocentric lock and the out-of-body experience and a review of the recent studies supporting this claim are also presented and discussed.
References
(2003). “What is my avatar seeing?” The coordination of “out-of-body” and “embodied” perspectives for scene recognition across views. Visual Cognition, 10, 157–199. doi: 10.1080/713756678.
(2013). Reducing self-objectification: Are dissonance-based methods a possible approach? Journal of Eating Disorders, 1, article 10. doi:10.1186/2050-2974-1-10.
(2010). The body in the brain revisited. Experimental Brain Research
[Experimentelle Hirnforschung. Experimentation cerebrale] . 200 (1), 25–35. doi: 10.1007/s00221-009-1970-7.(2012). Multisensory brain mechanisms of bodily self-consciousness. Nature Reviews. Neuroscience, 13, 556–571. doi: 10.1038/nrn3292.
(2005). The out-of-body experience: Disturbed self-processing at the temporo-parietal junction. Neuroscientist, 11, 16–24. doi: 10.1177/1073858404270885.
(2004). Out-of-body experience and autoscopy of neurological origin. Brain, 127, 243–258. doi: 10.1093/brain/awh040.
(2005). Out-of-body experience, heautoscopy, and autoscopic hallucination of neurological origin implications for neurocognitive mechanisms of corporeal awareness and self-consciousness. Brain Research Review, 50, 184–199. doi: 10.1016/j.brainresrev.2005.05.008.
(2005). Linking out-of-body experience and self processing to mental own-body imagery at the temporoparietal junction. The Journal of Neuroscience, 25, 550–557. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2612-04.2005.
(2005). Body work: The social construction of women’s body image. Hove, UK: Routledge.
(2012). A computational model of the allocentric and egocentric spatial memory by means of virtual agents, or how simple virtual agents can help to build complex computational models. Cognitive Systems Research, 17–18, 1–24. doi: 10.1016/j.cogsys.2011.09.001.
(2013). Xenomelia: A social neuroscience view of altered bodily self-consciousness. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 204 doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00204.
(2006). Spatial memory: How egocentric and allocentric combine. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10, 551–557. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2006.10.005.
(2007). Remembering the past and imagining the future: A neural model of spatial memory and imagery. Psychological Review, 114, 340–375. doi: 10.1037/0033-295X.114.2.340.
(2008). Symptom characteristics and psychiatric comorbidity among males with muscle dysmorphia. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 49, 374–379. doi: 10.1016/j.comppsych.2008.01.003.
(2009). Objectification processes and disordered eating in British women and men. Journal of Health Psychology, 14, 394–402. doi: 10.1177/1359105309102192.
(2010). Self-objectification in women: Causes, consequences, and counteractions. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
(2004). Reference frames for spatial cognition: Different brain areas are involved in viewer-, object-, and landmark-centered judgments about object location. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 16, 1517–1535. doi: 10.1162/0898929042568550.
(2012). Former eating disorder impairs 3rd person but not 1st person perspective taking. Does dance training help? Comprehensive Psychology, 1, 1–10. doi: 10.2466/02.06.20.CP.1.7.
(2014). Increased resting state functional connectivity in the default mode network in recovered anorexia nervosa. Human Brain Mapping, 35, 483–491. doi: 10.1002/hbm.22202.
(2006). Phenomenal characteristics of autobiographical memories for social and non-social events in social phobia. Memory, 14, 637–647. doi: 10.1080/09658210600747183.
(2012). Disordered eating behaviors among Italian men: Objectifying media and sexual orientation differences. Eating Disorders, 20, 356–367. doi: 10.1080/10640266.2012.715514.
(2014). Comprehensive examination of the trans-diagnostic cognitive behavioral model of eating disorders in males. Eating Behaviors, 15, 63–67. doi: 10.1016/j.eatbeh.2013.10.003.
(2013). Are the male body dissatisfaction and drive for muscularity scales reliable and valid instruments? Journal of Health Psychology. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1177/1359105313498108.
(2013a). Current considerations for eating and body-related disorders among men. In , Body image: Gender differences, sociocultural influences and health implication (pp. 195–216). New York, NY: Nova Science.
(2013b). Mass media, body image and eating disturbances: The underlying mechanism through the lens of the objectification theory. In , Body image: Gender differences, sociocultural influences and health implication (pp. 217–236). New York, NY: Nova Science.
(2010). The drive for muscularity in men: Media influences and objectification theory. Body Image, 7, 32–38. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2009.08.003.
(2005). Image schemas: From linguistic analysis to neural grounding. In , From perception to meaning: Image schemas in cognitive linguistics (pp. 57–91). Berlin, Germany: de Gruyter.
(2001). A cortical area selective for visual processing of the human body. Science, 293, 2470–2473. doi: 10.1126/science.1063414.
(2007). The experimental induction of out-of-body experiences. Science, 5841, 1048 doi: 10.1126/science.1142175.
(2012). Disruption of visuospatial and somatosensory functional connectivity in anorexia nervosa. Biological Psychiatry, 72, 864–870. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2012.04.025.
(1997). Objectification theory: Toward understanding women’s lived experiences and mental health risks. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21, 173–206. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-6402.1997.tb00108.x.
(2012). Self-weighing among adolescents: Associations with body mass index, body satisfaction, weight control behaviors, and binge eating. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 112, 99–103. doi: 10.1016/j.jada.2011.08.036.
(2005). Egocentrism, allocentrism, and Asperger syndrome. Consciousness and Cognition, 14, 719–738. doi: 10.1016/j.concog.2005.04.006.
(2000). The neural basis of egocentric and allocentric coding of space in humans: A functional magnetic resonance study. Experimental Brain Research, 133, 156–164. doi: 10.1007/s002210000375.
(2011). Gray matter decrease distribution in the early stages of anorexia nervosa restrictive type in adolescents. Psychiatry Research, 191, 24–30. doi: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2010.06.007.
(2012). Neural basis of a multidimensional model of body image distortion in anorexia nervosa. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 36, 1839–1847. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2012.05.003.
(2013). Body image disturbances in anorexia: The link between functional connectivity alterations and reference frames. Biological Psychiatry, 73, e25–e26. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2012.08.028.
(2008). Mechanisms underlying embodiment, disembodiment and loss of embodiment. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 32, 143–160. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2007.07.001.
(2012). Imagining one’s own and someone else’s body actions: Dissociation in anorexia nervosa. PLoS One, 7, e43241 doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0043241.
(2010). Anticipation of body-scaled action is modified in anorexia nervosa. Neuropsychologia, 48, 3961–3966. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.09.004.
(2012). Disowning one’s seen real body during an out-of-body illusion. Consciousness and Cognition, 21, 1037–1042. doi: 10.1016/j.concog.2012.01.018.
(1987). The body in the mind. The bodily basis of imagination, reason and meaning. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press.
(2010). Voxel-based morphometry in eating disorders: Correlation of psychopathology with grey matter volume. Psychiatry Research, 182, 146–151. doi: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2010.02.004.
(2008). Does adolescent media use cause obesity and eating disorders? Adolescent Medicine: State of the Art Reviews, 19, 431–449.
(2007). A 20-year longitudinal study of body weight, dieting, and eating disorder symptoms. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 116, 422–432. doi: 10.1037/0021-843X.116.2.422.
(2011). Tactile body image disturbance in anorexia nervosa. Psychiatry Research, 190 (1), 115–120. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2011.04.031.
(2010). Reference frames during the acquisition and development of spatial memories. Cognition, 116, 409–420. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2010.06.002.
(1998). Allocentric and egocentric spatial representations: Definitions, distinctions and interconnections. In , Spatial Cognition: An interdisciplinary approach to representation and processing of spatial knowledge (pp. 1–17). Berlin, Germany: Springer-Verlag.
(1999). Dieting and body image in the child’s world: Conceptualization and behavior. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 160, 488–499. doi: 10.1080/00221329909595561.
(2007). Video ergo sum: Manipulating bodily self-consciousness. Science, 317, 1096–1099. doi: 10.1126/science.1143439.
(2007). Emotional arousal and memory binding: An object-based framework. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2 (1), 33–52. doi: 10.1111/j.1745-6916.2007.00028.x.
(2011). Impaired neural processing of social attribution in anorexia nervosa. Psychiatry Research, 194, 54–63. doi: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2011.06.016.
(2008). Objectification theory and psychology of women: A decade of advances and future directions. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 32, 377–398. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-6402.2008.00452.x.
(2013). From allo- to egocentric spatial ability in early Alzheimer’s disease: A study with virtual reality spatial tasks. Cognitive Neuroscience, 4, 171–180. doi: 10.1080/17588928.2013.854762.
(2004). Allocentric and egocentric updating of spatial memories. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 30, 142–157. doi: 10.1037/0278-7393.30.1.142.
(2012). A comparison of eating, exercise, shape, and weight related symptomatology in males with muscle dysmorphia and anorexia nervosa. Body Image, 9, 193–200. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2012.01.008.
(2013). An investigation of the transdiagnostic model of eating disorders in the context of muscle dysmorphia. European Eating Disorders Review, 21, 160–164. doi: 10.1002/erv.2194.
(2006). Obesity, disordered eating, and eating disorders in a longitudinal study of adolescents: How do dieters fare 5 years later? Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 106, 559–568. doi: 10.1016/j.jada.2006.01.003.
(2004). Spontaneously occurring images and early memories in people with body dysmorphic disorder. Memory, 12, 428–436. doi: 10.1080/09658210444000043.
(2010). Transportability of an empirically supported dissonance-based prevention program for eating disorders. Body Image, 7, 179–186. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2010.02.006.
(2011). The key to unlocking the virtual body: Virtual reality in the treatment of obesity and eating disorders. Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology, 5, 283–292.
(2012). Neuroscience and eating disorders: The allocentric lock hypothesis. Medical Hypotheses, 78, 254–257. doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2011.10.039.
(2013). From body dissatisfaction to obesity: How virtual reality may improve obesity prevention and treatment in adolescents. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 184, 356–362.
(2012). Allocentric lock in anorexia nervosa: New evidences from neuroimaging studies. Medical Hypotheses, 79 (1), 113–117. doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2012.03.036.
(2013). I’m in a virtual body: A locked allocentric memory may impair the experience of the body in both obesity and anorexia nervosa. Eating and Weight Disorders. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1007/s40519–013-0066–3.
(2000). Body image and eating restraint: A structural modeling analysis. Eating and Weight Disorders, 5, 38–42.
(1996a). Body image assessment and treatment in controlled studies of eating disorders. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 19, 341–343.
(1996b). Improving body image in obesity. In , Body image, eating disorders and obesity (pp. 425–440). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
(1995). Cognitive behavior therapy for negative body image in obese women. Behavior therapy, 26, 25–42. doi: 10.1016/S0005-7894(05)80081-4.
(2010). First person experience of body transfer in virtual reality. PLoS One, 5, e10564 doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0010564.
(1999). Body size perception in anorexia nervosa: A signal detection approach. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 46, 465–477. doi: S0022399999000057.
(2002). Risk and maintenance factors for eating pathology: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 128, 825–848. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.128.5.825.
(2001). A randomized trial of a dissonance-based eating disorder prevention program. The International Journal of Eating Disorders, 29, 247–262. doi: 10.1002/eat.1016.
(2008). Fasting increases risk for onset of binge eating and bulimic pathology: A 5-year prospective study. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 117, 941–946. doi: 10.1037/a0013644.
(2002). Risk factors for binge eating onset in adolescent girls: A 2-year prospective investigation. Health Psychology, 21, 131–138. doi: 10.1037/0278-6133.21.2.131.
(2013). Effectiveness of peer-led dissonance-based eating disorder prevention groups: Results from two randomized pilot trials. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 51, 197–206. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2013.01.004.
(2008). Dissonance-based interventions for the prevention of eating disorders: Using persuasion principles to promote health. Prevention Science: The Official Journal of the Society for Prevention Research, 9, 114–128. doi: 10.1007/s11121-008-0093-x.
(2010). Reduction of gray matter density in the extrastriate body area in women with anorexia nervosa. Behavioural Brain Research, 206, 63–67. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2009.08.035.
(1999). Exacting beauty: Theory, assessment and treatment of body image disturbance. Washington DC: American Psychological Association.
(2001). Thin-ideal internalization: Mounting evidence for a new risk factor for body-image disturbance and eating pathology. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 10, 181–183. doi: 10.1111/1467-8721.00144.
(2002). Media influences on body image development. In , Body Image: A handbook of theory, research and clinical practice (pp. 91–98). New York, NY: Guilford.
(2004). Thin ideals in music television: A source of social comparison and body dissatisfaction. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 35, 48–58. doi: 10.1002/eat.10214.
(2010). Eating Disorders. Lancet, 375, 583–593. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(09)61748-7.
(2007). Transcranial magnetic stimulation reveals two cortical pathways for visual body processing. The Journal of Neuroscience: The Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 27, 8023–8030. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0789-07.2007.
(2007). Representation of body identity and body actions in extrastriate body area and ventral premotor cortex. Nature Neuroscience, 10, 30–31. doi: 10.1038/nn1815.
(2009). Eating style, overeating, and overweight in a representative Dutch sample. Does external eating play a role? Appetite, 52, 380–387. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2008.11.010.
(2005). Physical attractiveness and health in Western societies: A review. Psychological Bulletin, 131, 635–653. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.131.5.635.
(1999). The observer perspective: Biased imagery in social phobia, agoraphobia, and blood/injury phobia. Behavior Research and Therapy, 37, 653–658. doi: 10.1016/S0005-7967(98)00150-8.
(2012). An overview of anorexia nervosa in males. Eating Disorders, 20, 368–378. doi: 10.1080/10640266.2012.715515.
(2007). The neural basis of the egocentric and allocentric spatial frame of reference. Brain Research, 1137, 92–103. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2006.12.044.
