Embodiment, intuitive eating and psychological resources: Exploring experiences of embodiment in a community sample of women
Standing
Undergraduate
Type of Proposal
Oral Research Presentation
Challenges Theme
Open Challenge
Faculty Sponsor
Sarah Woodruff
Proposal
This presentation is about positive embodiment which represents a promising, emerging direction in psychological research, with opportunities for application in a variety of settings including community health promotion, education, counselling, coaching, and public policy. The experience of embodiment construct aims to capture a range of phenomenological experience of existing as a body in the world and emerged from study concerning the prevention of eating disorders. Foundational qualitative research with women and girls led to the creation of the Developmental Theory of Embodiment (DTE), which describes domains of experience (with polarities of control or freedom) and attempts to unravel the complex dialectical meaning-making of being in a female body in a social and cultural context that impacts behaviour, emotional experience, and wellbeing in an ongoing, iterative process (Piran, 2016). According to the DTE, women’s experiences of eating, exercise, self-expression, sexual agency, and self-care are continually negotiated in socio-cultural settings that have impact across domains (Piran, 2017). Additionally, this presentation focuses on positive embodiment and intuitive eating which describes a positive relationship with food, a healthy relationship between food and body shape, and a healthy relationship to physical activity (Tylka, 2006). It describes a way of eating that is regulated by internal signals, rather than external eating rules. Because intuitive eating focuses on attunement to inner states and away from restrictive eating patterns for the purposes of changing appearance, it has been suggested that this way of eating would be associated with both physical and mental health benefits (Tribole & Resch, 2012). Furthermore, another branch of this presentation discusses positive embodiment and positive psychology. Positive psychology is a field of study interested in the promotion of wellbeing, greater understanding of the value of positive emotions, and in promoting human flourishing. The experiences of embodiment construct, with positive embodiment representing optimal functioning as a state of embodied wellbeing, has shared interest with positive psychology.
Grand Challenges
Viable, Healthy and Safe Communities
Embodiment, intuitive eating and psychological resources: Exploring experiences of embodiment in a community sample of women
This presentation is about positive embodiment which represents a promising, emerging direction in psychological research, with opportunities for application in a variety of settings including community health promotion, education, counselling, coaching, and public policy. The experience of embodiment construct aims to capture a range of phenomenological experience of existing as a body in the world and emerged from study concerning the prevention of eating disorders. Foundational qualitative research with women and girls led to the creation of the Developmental Theory of Embodiment (DTE), which describes domains of experience (with polarities of control or freedom) and attempts to unravel the complex dialectical meaning-making of being in a female body in a social and cultural context that impacts behaviour, emotional experience, and wellbeing in an ongoing, iterative process (Piran, 2016). According to the DTE, women’s experiences of eating, exercise, self-expression, sexual agency, and self-care are continually negotiated in socio-cultural settings that have impact across domains (Piran, 2017). Additionally, this presentation focuses on positive embodiment and intuitive eating which describes a positive relationship with food, a healthy relationship between food and body shape, and a healthy relationship to physical activity (Tylka, 2006). It describes a way of eating that is regulated by internal signals, rather than external eating rules. Because intuitive eating focuses on attunement to inner states and away from restrictive eating patterns for the purposes of changing appearance, it has been suggested that this way of eating would be associated with both physical and mental health benefits (Tribole & Resch, 2012). Furthermore, another branch of this presentation discusses positive embodiment and positive psychology. Positive psychology is a field of study interested in the promotion of wellbeing, greater understanding of the value of positive emotions, and in promoting human flourishing. The experiences of embodiment construct, with positive embodiment representing optimal functioning as a state of embodied wellbeing, has shared interest with positive psychology.