Former eating disorder impairs 3rd person but not 1st person perspective taking. Does dance training help?

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_1FD7247F4DFB
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Former eating disorder impairs 3rd person but not 1st person perspective taking. Does dance training help?
Journal
Comprehensive Psychology
Author(s)
Cooper K., Mohr C.
ISSN
2165-2228
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2012
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
1
Pages
7
Language
english
Abstract
The mental ability to take the perspective of another person may depend on one's own bodily awareness and experience. In the present study, the former was defined as having a history of an eating disorder, and the latter variable was defined as formal experience with dance. The study used a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design in which reaction times in two mental perspective taking tasks were compared between female dancers and non-dancers with and without a former eating disorder. Participants were asked to imagine two perspectives: i) the position of front-facing and back-facing figures (3rd person perspective taking task) and ii) that these same figures are a self reflection in a mirror (1st person perspective taking task). In both tasks, a particular hand was indicated in the presented figures, and the participants had to decide whether the hand represented their own left or right hand. Overall, responses were slower for front-facing than back-facing figures in the 3rd person perspective taking task, and for back-facing than front-facing figures in the 1st person perspective taking task. Importantly, having a former history of an eating disorder related to a decreased performance in the 3rd person perspective taking task, but only in participants without dance experience. Results from an additional control group (a history of exercise but no dance experience) indicated that dance is particularly beneficial for mental bodily perspective taking. Dance experience, more so than exercise in general, can benefit 3rd person or extrapersonal perspective taking, supporting the favourable impact this exercise has on own body processing
Keywords
empathy, body image distortion / dissatisfaction, self - other, personal and extrapersonal space, sport activity / therapy
Open Access
Yes
Create date
22/04/2012 10:25
Last modification date
20/08/2019 13:55
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