‘I think a little bit of a kick is sometimes what you need’: Women’s accounts of whole-body scanning and likely impact on health-related behaviours
- Submitting institution
-
Manchester Metropolitan University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 220655
- Type
- D - Journal article
- DOI
-
10.1080/08870446.2017.1329933
- Title of journal
- Psychology & Health
- Article number
- -
- First page
- 1037
- Volume
- 32
- Issue
- 9
- ISSN
- 0887-0446
- Open access status
- Compliant
- Month of publication
- May
- Year of publication
- 2017
- URL
-
https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/618422/
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- Yes
- Number of additional authors
-
5
- Research group(s)
-
D - Fashion
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Many studies and commercial initiatives have used 3D body scanners without considering the impact it may have on participants. To understand the psychological impact of body scanning on people’s body image, health and well-being, Kathryn Brownbridge co-founded an interdisciplinary team of clothing and psychology experts in 2008. This article presents new insights into the complex nature of how women feel when being scanned. Extending previous work using body scanners to challenge body size overestimation (Stewart et al. 2013), the study reveals that women tend to express shock or surprise when viewing the scanned images of their bodies and to focus on negative aspects of the scan, rather than the positive. A second finding was that women who are already healthy and exercising regularly found that viewing the scan image was helpful in maintaining healthy eating and exercise. To probe into women’s thoughts and feelings about the scan experience a qualitative, critical realist perspective was adopted. A reflexive, team approach to knowledge construction was used (Madill, Jordan, & Shirley, 2000; Willig, 2013). Semantic level inductive thematic analysis methods were rigorously applied and although 14 women participated, after ten interviews, no new themes emerged thus saturation point had been reached and recruitment ceased. Published in the journal of Psychology and Health (SNIP 1.27, Impact 2.27) this article has been cited by three other journal articles. Significantly for fashion and clothing related applications the findings demonstrate that careless use of body scanning can be harmful to women being scanned. We argue for a clear set of protocols that include training programmes for scan operators to ensure safe practice industry wide and inform future policy making. Importantly, the research demonstrates the potential for scanners to be used to maintain healthy eating and exercise, which opens up a new field of health behaviour research.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -