Body image is a crucial factor in how we understand, interact with and feel about ourselves and the world. The Emotional Body, explores both why we have such a cognitive-affective experience of body image in the first place and why this experience differs from person to person. Establishing the explanations for these two phenomena at the two different levels of 'ultimate' and 'proximate' causation respectively, Simon Dalley argues that ultimate evolutionary psychological and social factors can be used to explain the presence of our experiences of body image. The focus on the body and attractiveness are explained in terms of strategies which facilitate the establishment and attainment of social goals such as competition, reproduction and survival. Turning to how these experiences of body image differ between individuals, the author investigates the proximate cultural, sub-cultural and situational reasons for our differing experiences of body image and how this relates to our sense of self. The book goes on to examine the adaptive and maladaptive coping mechanisms, such as anorexia, bulimia and exercise addiction, employed by individuals with regard to body image, before outlining directions for future research in the field.
- ISBN10 1841693561
- ISBN13 9781841693569
- Publish Date 1 December 2013
- Publish Status Cancelled
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Imprint Psychology Press Ltd
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 192
- Language English