ABSTRACT
The Author's own results from a sample of girls and young women with anorexia and bulimia and distinguished and described the psychological characteristics of three profiles – the restrictive, the bulimic, and the adolescent profiles – together with their levels of pressure from and internalization of sociocultural body image standards present in social media. Compared to other profiles, women with the restrictive profile showed the greatest intensity of body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness, and interoceptive deficits, as well as lowered self-esteem and low bulimia levels. Similar to the restrictive profile, women with the bulimic profile showed very high pressure from and internalization of sociocultural female body standards. Women with the restrictive and bulimic types showed similar, higher than in the adolescent profile, pressure and internalization levels. Characterizing the profiles of basic psychological traits among eating disorder patients allows psychologists for formulating initial diagnostic hypotheses concerning the patients’ functioning within the therapeutic alliance and relationship, especially in the initial stages of treatment.
