April 2005 Archives
The Renfrew Center of Philadelphia has an immediate opening for a full-time Director of Research.
Responsibilities for this position include:
• Use research data and tools to interface with and enhance clinical process/procedures
• Collaborate on a recently-funded NIMH grant to study the application of CBT procedures to The Renfrew Center’s Intensive Outpatient Program
A recent study by Cash and colleagues, published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology suggests that US women's body image has changed during the 80s and 90s whilst men's body image has stayed pretty stable. At least amongst non-Black women, body image dissatisfaction increased during the early years of the study until the mid 90s, when body image in Black and non-black women seemed to improve. It kind of makes you wonder whether some of the challenging that has gone on in recent year of stereotyped images of women's beauty and the tyranny of thinness may have done some good?
This month's Psychologist, the magazine of the British Psychological Society, is a special issue on psychological aspects of obesity. Contributors include Jane Wardle on how genes and environment interact resulting in obesity, Paul Chadwick, Helen Croker and Jane Ogden on the pros and cons of psychological interventions. All articles are free to view online.
I had a great time at the 7th London International Conference on Eating Disorders last week. As usual, a wonderfully diverse and stimulating programme, very well organised by Rachel Bryant Waugh, Bryan Lask and their hardworking team of volunteers.
One of the highlights for me were Tuesday morning's plenary session on 'Coercion, collaboration and choice', with presentations by Philip Graham, Jacinta Tan and Josie Geller. And of course, Kelly Vitousek's workshop entitled 'Alienating patients from the anorexic self' considered the pros and cons of using the technique of 'externalising' with patients with anorexia. Whenever I hear Kelly speak I come away with my head buzzing with excitement and so many new ideas.
There was quite a bit of media coverage of the conference, particularly about Bryan Lask and colleagues' neuroimaging work. Bryan was on 'All in the Mind' on Radio 4 last week talking about this and other issues in eating disorders. The work was also mentioned in the Independent Newspaper.
Wales will soon have its own specialist eating disorder service, when the privately run Welsh Centre for Eating Disorders opens later this year (reported on news.bbc.co.uk). Currently there is no specialist service for people with eating disorders within Wales. This generally sounds like good news, but some professionals have expressed disappointment that an NHS service could not be developed instead.
I'll be giving my presentation entitled: 'Understanding Perfectionism, Persistence and Perseverance: Development of a multi-factorial measure' at the seventh London International Eating Disorders Conference tomorrow. Abstract is below, slides are available if you email me.
UNDERSTANDING PERSEVERANCE, PERSISTENCE AND PERFECTIONISM: DEVELOPMENT OF A MULTI-FACTORIAL MEASURE
Lucy Serpell, Glenn Waller, Pasco Fearon and Caroline Meyer
Background: Perfectionism is often cited as a causal/maintaining factor in eating disorders. There is also a lack of flexibility (‘perseverance’). Finally, anorexics have often been characterised as persistent and thorough. This study reports development of a measure (the Perseverance, Persistence and Perfectionism Questionnaire; PPPQ), to clarify and distinguish these aspects.
Method: Following initial measure development, 325 non-clinical individuals completed a 28-item measure of behaviours and cognitions associated with perfectionism, persistence and perseverance. Factor analysis was used to derive subscales. Their association with measures of eating (EDE-Q) and general psychopathology (Brief Symptom Inventory) was examined.
Results: The 3 factors which emerged, Perseverance, Persistence and Perfectionism, had robust psychometric properties. Perseverance was strongly associated with general and eating psychopathology, suggesting that it is the key determinant of distress. Perfectionism was moderately associated with psychopathology. Persistence appears to be a healthy trait.
Conclusion: The PPPQ is theoretically rooted, psychometrically sound and clinically valid. It suggests that perfectionism is a more complex entity than has been portrayed. Further research is needed to determine the utility of the PPPQ in clinical groups. However, treatment approaches might need to be targeted on reducing perseverant traits, while enhancing persistence as a more adaptive trait.
