The Matrix of Eating Disorder Vulnerability: Oral History and the Link between Personal and Social Problems

Abstract

In this article the authors analyze the original oral history transcript of a college student suffering from anorexia nervosa. Research shows that eating disorders are the result of a variety of personal and social factors that come together in order to create a greater susceptibility to eating disorders in some people. Through a thematic analysis of the psychological and socio-cultural factors that influenced Claire's eating disorder, the authors personalize “the matrix of eating disorder vulnerability” through one woman's story. In this way, the authors contend that the oral history process fosters the link between personal problems and large-scale social problems.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Patricia Leavy

Patricia Leavy is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Stonehill College in Easton, MA. She is also the founder and director of the Gender Studies Program at Stonehill. She is co-editor of Approaches to Qualitative Research: A Reader on Theory and Practice (Oxford University Press, 2004) and Emergent Methods in Social Research (Sage Publications, 2006). She is co-author of The Practice of Qualitative Research (Sage Publications, 2006) and co-author of A Feminist Research Primer (forthcoming Sage Publications). She is the author of Method Meets Art: Social Research and the Creative Arts (forthcoming Guilford Publications) and Iconic Events: Media, Power and Politics in Retelling History (forthcoming Lexington Books). She has published articles in the areas of collective memory, popular culture, qualitative research, body image, and feminism.

Lauren Sardi Ross

Lauren Sardi Ross is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Connecticut. She has numerous interests within the areas of gender and masculinities, sexualities, feminist and qualitative research methods, and social psychology. Her master's thesis focused on the ways that oral histories can be used to understand the differences between African American and Latino males' discussions of masculinity and body image.