WEIGHT BIAS AMONG MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS
Research type
Research Study
Full title
AN INVESTIGATION INTO WEIGHT BIAS AMONG MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS TREATING OVERWEIGHT/OBESE PATIENTS
IRAS ID
181903
Contact name
Tarynne Quirk
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
City University London
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 3 months, 30 days
Research summary
An investigation into the implicit and explicit attitudes held by mental health professionals toward their overweight/obese clients.
A positivist study utilising an experimental design using quantitative research methods and techniques. Parametric statistics will allow for an exploratory correlational research study whereby the explicit measures will be carried out before administering the Implicit Association Test (IAT).
Participants will then be asked to complete 3 anonymous online questionnaires designed to reveal explicit weight bias, perceived causes of obesity and attitudes to the treatment of obese people, these are namely: the BAOP (Beliefs About Obese People) Scale (Allison, Basile & Yuker, 1991), the ATOP (Attitudes Towards Obese People) Scale (Allison et al., 1991) and the F-Scale (shortened version of the Fat Phobia Scale; Bacon, Scheltema & Robinson, 2001).
The Implicit Association Test (IAT; Greenwald, McGhee & Schwartz, 1998) is a widely used computer-based measure completed anonymously, which is linked to the explicit measures by the same participant-ID code. The IAT has the ability to capture deeply-rooted, more stable, unconscious or introspectively inaccessible representations and could complement the traditionally used explicit assessments and make vital contributions to the understanding of drivers behind certain behaviours (Greenwald et al., 1998). The IAT is a timed dual categorization task useful in measuring implicit preferences, associations and bias toward a target group by bypassing conscious processing (Greenwald et al., 1998).
The control and experimental groups will carry out the explicit and implicit measures alone in a quiet room, however the latter group will be tested after watching an emotive 'weight-bias'-related video clip.
REC name
N/A
REC reference
N/A