Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

12-1985

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Psychology

Major Professor

Howard R. Pollio

Committee Members

William Calhoun, William B. Morgan, F. Stanley Lusby, Charles P. Cohen

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe the underlying thematic structure of experiences of the body. Sixteen mature, fully functioning adults participated in an open-ended interview inquiring into experiences of body. Interview statements were analyzed following a phenomenological procedure of reducing participant descriptions deriving key themes that captured the essential aspects of the experience.

Six categories emerged as irreducible themes necessary for the description of the experience of the body. The categories are Vitality, Activity, Instrument, Object, Appearance and Expression of Self. These categories were found to form systematic relationships with one another articulating the underlying structure of the body. Three major category pairs were determined to be important: Engagement, Corporeality and Interpersonal Meaning. Categories of Vitality and Activity combine to form experiences of engagement with the person's involvement in the world as the major focus in a situation. Instrument and Object combine to form experiences of corporeality with the body-as-physical as the major focus during the event. Appearance and Expression of Self combine to form experiences of interpersonal meaning when the major focus in the situation is the body-as-self.

Categories form figure/ground relationships that emerge and recede in awareness. As one category of experience becomes figural, other categories are more or less likely to co-occur. When the person is fully engaged in the world, for example, the object-like quality of the body is less likely to become figural in that situation. When the object-like quality of the body is focal, for example, in being ill, this event might also be experienced in terms of the category Expression of Self as the person struggles to remain "strong," to not "give in" to the illness.

The category system that was developed, and the specific findings that were generated through scoring the participant's interviews according to the category system, was discussed in terms of previous body image research findings. Theoretical perspectives on the experience of embodiment were also presented and discussed, relating categories to these approaches. The triadic structure (i.e., the category pairs and systematic interrelationships among categories) was further discussed in terms of contributions of G. Marcel, J. H. H. van den Berg, and M. Merleau-Ponty, among others.

Implications of the method used, and the results obtained, for clinical work and investigations were also discussed. Suggestions for future research utilizing the category system developed were also described.

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