Abstract

BATTINI, Elissa; SOARES, Maria Rita Zoéga  and  ZAKIR, Norma Sant’Ana. Software development for evaluation of body dysmorphic disorder under behavior analytic approuch. Temas psicol. [online]. 2008, vol.16, n.1, pp. 63-72. ISSN 1413-389X.

The super valuation of aesthetics is a cultural practice that has been used more and more by the verbal community, especially in western cultures. This context establishes contingencies that can control a series of behaviors associated with the appearance that, when exacerbated, may damage and include suffering that alters the usual routine of the individual. Many of these behaviors can be identified, according to the Diagnostical and Mental Statistical Manual of Disorders (DSM IV) as Body Dimorphic Disorder (BDD), which is characterized by the excessive preoccupation with light or non-existent imperfection in the body. The present study intends to evaluate the symptoms of BDD, according to the principles of the Behavior Analysis, through visual resources. The literature has demonstrated which patients with the disorder usually look for dentists, dermatologists and plastic surgeons because they believe a strictly physical defect is present. Many people take years to look for psychological or psychiatric services. This causes the behaviors presented by individuals diagnosed with BDD to be more and more persistent and of difficult intervention. In this way, the prevention of the behaviors attributed to BDD constitutes an important role in this treatment. The main purpose of this paper was to describe the software and its most important issues. For this, a software with ten situations was developed, based on the literature for BDD, which describes the main problems in people who present the disorder, such as: distortion of the physical image, excessive preoccupation with parts of the body, high frequency of looks into the mirror or , behaviors of avoidance of social situations due to preoccupation with a supposed defect, behaviors of camouflage of the respected deformed part, feelings regarding the presented problem and its absence and standards of beauty idealized. It is considered that the situations based on frequent behaviors off BDD and developed in the software can work as discriminative stimuli for which clinically relevant behaviors are evoked.

Keywords : Software; Software; Body Dimorphic Disorder; Evaluation; Behavior Analysis.