Existing literature fails to comprehensively identify factors contributing to the comorbid relationship between eating disorder (ED) behaviors and unipolar depression. Maladaptive social comparison, body dissatisfaction, and low self-esteem are disruptive psychological patterns common to both constructs. It is unclear whether a unique relationship exists between depression and eating disorder behaviors beyond the effects exerted by this negative cognitive triad. The purpose of the present study is to examine whether a unique relationship exists between depression and ED behaviors after controlling for maladaptive social comparison, body dissatisfaction, and low self-esteem. We predict minimal unique variance in ED behaviors will be explained by depression after controlling for this negative cognitive triad.

using a within-participants experimental design, the psychophysiological impact of objectified versus non-objectified clothing conditions in a sample of college women (n = 28) was examined. Participants showed significantly lower mean heart rate (hr) in the objectified compared to the non-objectified condition within the first 6 seconds of stimulus onset, indicative of an orienting response (or). the effect persisted at 5 minutes and did not vary as a function of trait self-objectification. results further inform objectification theory, suggesting a psychophysiological mechanism that may explain reduced cognitive processing in objectified states. A secondary aim was to examine prospective predictors of clothing-related distress. weight, thin-ideal internalization, social comparison, and trait self-objectification predicted negative affect, state anxiety, and body preferences following clothing conditions but not hr changes from objectified to non-objectified conditions. Partial regression coefficients suggest maladaptive social comparison predicted negative affect, state anxiety, and a smaller preferred body type following clothing try on. results suggest maladaptive social comparison may play an important role in clothing-related distress. Findings provide further support for social ranking theory.Equating overall feminine worth with a thin, hypersexualized appearance is termed the objectification of women (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). Objectification reduces women to physical objects

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