Doctoral Dissertation Research: Cultural Models of Body Image and the Development of Mental Illness

身体形象障碍和饮食行为紊乱伴随着所有精神疾病中最致命的，并且越来越普遍。然而，相对于女性，研究人员对男性如何经历饮食失调和身体形象知之甚少。对饮食失调相关发现的有效性的科学信心还需要更多的代表性样本，以探索对这些疾病的反应有什么变化。该项目除了提供资金，培训一名人类学研究生掌握经验科学数据收集和分析方法外，还将通过向致力于探索更有效方法向公众传播科学的组织广泛传播其研究结果，增进科学认识。这项研究的结果将以这样一种方式传播，以帮助研究人员、临床医生、教育工作者和政策制定者制定更好的政策和计划，预测和减轻这种文化身体态度对心理健康的影响。劳伦斯·莫诺塞洛在亚拉巴马大学威廉·德雷斯勒博士的监督下，将探讨身体意象的文化模式及其对精神疾病发展的结构性影响。为了应对不确定和不断变化的经济环境，迅速全球化的媒体，以及不断变化的性别规范，美国关于男性身体和身体形象的文化观念越来越关注美学表现而不是身体力量（即，重视身体作为一个对象来看待，而不是一个工具，体育，劳动，或保护）。这种对身体的态度会显著增加饮食失调的脆弱性。相比之下，这项研究所研究的男性群体已经陷入了一个崇尚男性身体美学形象的文化体系。 这项研究将在韩国的首尔进行，首尔是经济，教育和文化之都，拥有最成功的公司，最着名的大学和主要的娱乐集团。研究人员将专注于18-30岁的男性如何将男性身体理想概念化，试图在自己的身体中实现这些理想，并在更大的文化环境中为自己的个人身体形象体验创造意义。他们将制定一个衡量身体不满的标准，考虑到该文化所认可的文化特定的身体理想。使用人口统计学变量以及个人对男性身体理想的了解，与身体理想的一致性和身体不满的测量，然后进行长期深入的访谈，研究人员将探索这些因素中的每一个如何影响男性饮食失调行为的发展。这项研究的结果将为生活在支持男性美学而不是肌肉的文化环境中的男性如何应对压力以符合身体形象标准提供深入了解。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Body image disturbance and disordered eating behaviors accompany the deadliest of all mental illnesses and are increasingly prevalent. However, relative to women, researchers know comparatively little about how men experience eating disorders and body image. Scientific confidence in the validity of findings related to eating disorders also requires more representative samples that explore what variability there is in responses to these illnesses. In addition to providing funding for the training of a graduate student in anthropology in the methods of empirical, scientific data collection and analysis, the project would enhance scientific understanding by broadly disseminating its findings to organizations invested in discovering more effective methods for communicating science to the public. The findings of this research will be disseminated in such a way to aid researchers, clinicians, educators, and policymakers develop better policies and programs that anticipate and mitigate the effects of such cultural body attitudes on and mental health.Lawrence Monocello, under the supervision of Dr. William Dressler of the University of Alabama, will explore cultural models of body image and the structural influences that they have on development of mental illness. Responding to uncertain and shifting economic environments, rapidly globalizing media, and changing gender norms, cultural ideas about men's bodies and body image in the United States increasingly focus on aesthetic presentation over physical prowess (i.e., valuing the body as an object to be looked at rather than a tool for athletics, labor, or protection). This kind of body attitude that significantly increases vulnerability to eating disorders. By contrast, this research studies a population of men already mired in a cultural system that venerates an aesthetic male body image. This research will be conducted in Seoul, South Korea which is the economic, educational, and cultural capital, hosting its most successful companies, most celebrated universities, and major entertainment conglomerates. Researchers will focus on how men, ages 18-30, conceptualize male body ideals, attempt to enact them in their own bodies, and make meaning of their own individual body image experience within the larger cultural environment. They will develop a measure of body dissatisfaction that considers the culturally particular body ideals endorsed by that culture. Using demographic variables alongside measures of individuals' knowledge of male body ideals, concordance with body ideals, and body dissatisfaction, followed by long-term, in-depth interviews, the researchers will explore how each of these factors affects the development of disordered eating behaviors in men. Findings from this research will provide insight into how men living in cultural environments that endorse male aesthetics over brawn navigate pressures to conform to body image standards. These insights can then be used to develop interventions that will combat deadly body image-related disorders.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.