Desarrollo del Self Dialógico en mujeres obesas: un estudio longitudinal desde la psicología cultural

Abstract

In this study, we investigated how cultural prejudices and social rejection may have a significant effect on obese women's dialogical self-development. Adopting a longitudinal methodological approach, we analyzed the developmental trajectory of three obese women along a period of two years, during which they were submitted to bariatric surgery to lose weight. The aim was to identify and analyze the configurations of their dialogical self before, right after, and months after the surgery. Some guiding questions were 'How did they position themselves at those three different moments? What were the social others and experiences that contributed to their dialogical self changes? What was the impact of imagined future 'selves' over their self positionings?' The research was based on both semiotic and cultural psychology and the dialogical self-theory. Results revealed important aspects of the dynamics of self-development, shaped by the cultural canalization power of prejudice. However, each subject, in idiosyncratic ways, used diverse strategies and reacted very differently to prejudice and weight loss experiences, which reveals the complexities of their dialogical self in constant processes of development.

Overcoming the Binary Logic in Biculturalism

“…Progressively, in her narratives, she made explicit that, indeed, she suffered a lot with her relatives' bullying and was feeling more and Hypergeneralized Affective-Semiotic Fields: The Generative Power of a Construct more proud about the way she saw herself in the mirror. A detailed analysis of her Dialogical Self development can be consulted in Branco and Oliveira (2019), where we explain how we inferred, from indicators extracted from her lengthy narratives, her Dynamic Self Positionings at each point and how this allowed us to organize a general hierarchical configuration of the Dialogical Self development of our participants during the period of the investigation. Here I will present the major change concerning Regina's trajectory during the year and a half that we investigated her self-reflections and appraisals about herself (Table 1).…”

The perceived role of food and eating among Turkish women with obesity: A qualitative analysis

“…On the other hand, cultural dynamics shape the perceptions toward self and body (Branco & Silva, 2019 ; Agrawal et al, 2015 ), along with attitudes to eating. In a qualitative study comparing the attitudes toward food and the external effects on weight management in France and in United States, social interactions and pleasure from eating processed vs. natural foods were identified as distinguishing factors of weight management between two cultures (Dao et al, 2020 ).…”