Body Intelligence Scale: Defining and Measuring the Intelligence of the Body.

Abstract

This article introduces the Body Intelligence Scale (BIS) to humanistic, transpersonal, and positive psychologists, the most likely initial users of the BIS. I invite research collaboration and clinical trials with individuals in appropriate health care and clinical populations to evaluate the efficacy of the BIS. Theory and research relevant to body intelligence are reviewed and the concept of body intelligence is defined. The combination of qualitative and quantitative methods employed in scale development supports a multimethod approach to scale development, especially as relevant to assessing subtle human qualities. The current BIS is composed of three subscales: the Energy Body Awareness, Comfort Body Awareness, and Inner Body Awareness subscales. Future research should evaluate the reliability and validity of the BIS, usefulness of the BIS as a tool for the enhancement of body intelligence generally, and the relationship of the scale to appropriate clinical populations, particularly individuals with weight-management challenges, history of trauma and abuse, and/or physical illnesses clearly aggravated by stress.

Mediators between Yoga Practice and Psychological Well-Being : Mindfulness, Body Awareness and Satisfaction with Body Image

“…Paying attention to the bodily signals may actually be just the first step towards well-being; the tendency to let the bodily sensations influence behaviour and enhance self-caring, that is, body responsiveness, may also be required (dauBenmier 2005). The term 'body intelligence' was also used for the synthesis of body awareness, body knowledge and body responsiveness, a construct to be later examined in yoga research (anderson 2006;gaVin & moore 2010). The stress-reductive and physiological effects of yoga could also lead to higher wellbeing, independently of body awareness, body image and mindfulness (michaLsen et al 2005;WesT et al 2004).…”

Body Awareness: Construct and Self-Report Measures

“…BIS: Body Intelligence Scale by Anderson, 2006 [118].BRQ: Body Responsiveness Questionnaire by Daubenmier J, 2005 [23].BAM: Body Awareness Measure by Forester CA, 2000 [132].TQ: Timer Questionnaire by Franzoi SL, 1989 [133].SBA: Scale of Body Awareness by Hansell S, Sherman G, Mechanic D, 1991 [134].QCC: Un Questionario di Consapevolezza Corporea (A Questionnaire on Body Awareness – Italian) by Lombardo C, San Martini P, Violani C, 1995 [136].PBCS: Private Body Consciousness Sub-scale of the Body Consciousness Questionnaire by Miller LC, Murphy R, Buss H [135].BPQ subscales: Body Perception Questionnaire (Awareness, Stress Response and Autonomic Nervous System Reactivity Subscales) by Porges SW, 1993 [139].SBC: Scale of Body Connection by Price C, 2005 [74].BVS: Body Vigilance Scale by Schmidt NB, Lerew DR, Trakowski JH, 1997 [141].BAQ: Body Awareness Questionnaire by Shields S, Mallory M, Simon A, 1989 [142].MHQ: Health Consciousness Subscale of The Multidimensional Health Questionnaire by Snell WE Jr, Johnson G, 1996 [143].See Table 3 for criteria used to evaluate instruments in each category.…”

Innovating Metrics for Smarter, Responsive Cities

“…In order to explore the people involvement emotion/affect dimension of smart cities, an early stage adaptation of Anderson's [96] body insight scale (BIS) is used. Formerly referred to as the body intelligence scale (BIS) [97], three questions from the BIS were slightly adapted for use in this work in an urban context.…”

“…Where other scales such as that by Teixiera, Dublon, and Savvides [98] place a focus on computer-based human sensing for elements such as presence, count, location, track, and identity, the BIS with the three subscales for energy (E-BAS), comfort (C-BAS), and inner (I-BAS) body awareness may be particularly appropriate for this work because the scale is designed for "assessing subtle human qualities". Although designed for other domains, Anderson [96] invites broader domain use of the BIS. The following three BIS questions were slightly adapted for incorporation into the survey and interview for this work:…”

“…Using Cronbach's Alpha (in Microsoft Excel) as a measure of internal consistency and scale reliability for this 7-point Likert scale item as well as the three items in Figure 4, a value of 0.90 is achieved across the 4 items. In further probing of urban sensibilities, results are provided for the emotive/affective exploration conducted using an early stage adaptation of Anderson's [96] BIS. Awareness and assessments for the sensing of anger, comfort, and safety in cities are presented in Figure 4 in response to the three questions identified in Section 4.1.…”