Hi. I am looking for a way to measure body size or body image incongruence. i would like to try and measure the differnece between actual and perceived body size. i was wondering if anyone knows or can think of a measure for this.
Thank you
Often we measure the perceived vs. the desired. It's usually done with the 5-6 images of the body, where the participants circle their perceived and desired self in terms of body image.
I think you can play on this. You can still measure the perceived, as usual, and as to the actual - maybe first measure the BMI (i.e., weight and height) and then divide the BMI by levels corresponding to the 5-6 figures of the questionnaire.
Freeman et al. (1984) used a video image of participants and asked them to move it to perceived scale, and compared dimensions to the actual scale. You could do this using paint software for instance where width moves independent of height. You could repeat for both enlarge out and shrink in to scale, for improved reliability.
I don't know if there are any versions of relative height/width silhouettes. It would be very useful to make a software that can generate them!
"Freeman et al., 1984. A modified video camera for measuring body image distortion: technical description and reliability. Psychological Medicine"
There are various figural rating scales that have been validated to do exactly this. I'd recommend using far more images than 5-6, as Efrat suggests - for a discussion why a limited number of images is problematic, see Gardner and Brown (2010, Personality and Individual Differences). Depending on your sample, you might consider the Photographing Figure Rating Scale (PFRS; Swami et al., 2008, Personality and Individual Differences) - I'm happy to send this to you, if you think it might be what you're after. The PFRS includes ten images of real women varying in BMI from emaciated to obese and has been good psychometric properties (but it is only available for completion by women). Participants indicate their ideal and current figures based on the scale and you can calculate a score of actual-ideal weight discrepancy.
I attach a text to a study I did recently. "Figure Rating Scale (A. J. Stunkard & Sørensen, 1983). This is fundamentally based on the identication of the subject with a determined type of silhouette that corresponds to a specific BMI, which was hidden from the students at all times. The procedure was performed as follow: Firstly, each student selected a figure, which corresponded with his or her own silhouette. Secondly, they choose the one they would like to have. Finally, they were asked to choose their ideal preference of body type in the opposite sex. Comparing the perceived and desired values of BMI with those of their actual measurements from anthropometry (desired BMI – estimated BMI), we could obtain a pattern of the distortion of their own body self-perception. The 3rd question asked we could determine the feminine figure most desired by boys and the male figure most desired by girls".
Thank you all for your GREAT answers. i will follow up on all your great suggestions!
There are purpose made 3D body scanners. I can't remember the name of the company but I think they are based in Basingstoke, UK.
Something like this https://www.tailormadelondon.com/3d-body-scanner/
and
https://www.vitronic.com/industrial-and-logistics-automation/sectors/3d-body-scanner.html
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