Personality Characteristics of Eating-Disordered Outpatients as Measured by the Hand Test

Abstract

The Hand Test was administered to 34 eating-disordered and 26 noneating-disordered college-age women to determine discriminating projective personality features. Eating-disordered women scored higher on response time, overall pathology, and passivity. Anorexics present more tension, aggression, and acting out potential whereas bulimics demonstrate significantly more passive responses. The more severely affected women scored higher on crippled, passive, and withdrawal variables. Similarities as well as differences between the groups may have important implications for the diagnosis of subgroups of eating-disordered women and for treatment planning.

Aggressiveness, Anger and Eating Disorders: A Review

“…Unlike few reports [52] , most studies suggested that anorectic patients tend to suppress anger or direct anger towards themselves [53][54][55][56] and only sometimes to root it in aggressiveness to others, especially family members [40,41,55] , whereas bulimic patients often have angry feelings and can act them toward other people or objects [41,50,54,57] . Furthermore, obese patients with binge eating disorder (BED) tend to express anger outside, whereas obese patients without BED tend to suppress anger [58] .…”

Beyond orality: Toward an object relations/interactionist reconceptualization of the etiology and dynamics of dependency.

“…In contrast to studies of the dependency-obesity link, most studies of the dependency-eating disorders relation have compared the frequency of dependent personality disorder (DPD) symptoms in eating-disordered participants and noneating-disordered controls (Bornstein, 1993). Although these investigations have generally found that anorexic and bulimic participants show higher rates of DPD symptoms and diagnoses than do matched control participants (Jacobson & Robins, 1989;Lenihan & Kirk, 1990;Levin & Hyler, 1986;Wonderlich, Swift, Slotnick, & Goodman, 1990;Zimmerman & Coryell, 1989), these investigations also found that eating-disordered participants show elevated rates of several other personality disorder diagnoses. For example, although 32% of the eating-disordered participants in Wonderlich et al's inpatient sample met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd ed., Rev.…”

Are Oral, Obsessive, and Hysterical Personality Traits Related to Disturbed Eating Patterns? A General Population Study of 6,313 Men and Women

“…This may be associated with the schizoid and antisocial disorders (Tisdale, Pendleton, & Marler, 1990) as well as poor impulse control (Striegel-Moore, Silberstein, & Rodin, 1986). Another trend is the reporting of traits more similar to those associated with restrictive anorexia nervosa, such as dependency, oral fixation, and avoidance (Gilberstadt & Duker, 1965;Norman et al, 1993;Tisdale et al, 1990); helplessness and passivity (Lenihan & Kirk, 1990); low self-esteem and a fragile sense of self (Pryor & Wiederman, 1996;Striegel-Moore et al, 1986); as well as poor social well-being, alienation, and negative affectivity (Pryor & Wiederman, 1996). Moreover, both patients with anorexia and patients with bulimia are likely to express concerns over their sexual acceptance (Pryor & Wiederman, 1996) and a strong conformity to traditional moral and family values (Casper et al, 1992).…”