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‘Demand Characteristics' in Body-Size Estimation in Anorexia Nervosa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Linda Proctor  and
Stephen Morley
Linda Proctor
Affiliation:
The Drummond Clinic, Mill Road, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
Stephen Morley*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Leeds, 15 Hyde Terrace, Leeds LS2 9LT
*
∗Correspondence
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Abstract

We asked 24 patients with anorexia nervosa and 30 normal controls to estimate their body-size several times, each time using different instructions. The degree of over-estimation was found to vary predictably with the wording of the instructions. Informing the subject that she had made an error without specifying the direction of the error resulted in reduced over-estimation on a subsequent trial, for both anorexics and controls. ‘Internally directed’ instructions were associated with a greater degree of over-estimation than ‘external’ instructions in both groups, but particularly in anorexic subjects. Our results indicate the necessity of controlling the ‘demand characteristics' of such experiments.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 149 , Issue 1 , July 1986 , pp. 113 - 118
Copyright
Copyright © 1986 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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