Exploring self-concept in women with overweight or obesity

Overweight and obesity remain pressing issues, with numbers increasing globally (World Health Organisation, 2021). The literature review highlights the intricate causes and factors involving this. Most treatments focus their attention on the physiological facts that excess weight contributes to health problems/non-communicable disease risk, and therefore, their focus is on reducing the physical size of the individual through diet and exercise. Rarely are people asked questions that explore the underlying contributors to an individual’s weight status. Self-concept (self-image, self-esteem, and ideal-self) has been of interest in this topic area and there have been suggestions that this could enhance understanding individual causes and factors of eating behaviours. However, self-concept remains a small component in current preventable measures. The literature in this area demonstrates very few papers published on all three components of self-concept in women with overweight or obesity and none that were phenomenological and used phenomenological analysis. Given this limitation, this research phenomenologically explored the subjective interpretations and lived experiences of eight participants, with the research question exploring: ‘What are your lived experiences of your self-concept?’. This research aims to fill the literature gap by pulling together existing literature around this topic area and forming a path of its own by changing the focus to the individual, rather than the symptom of being overweight or obese. After careful consideration, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was found to be the most suitable methodology to explore participants' subjective interpretations and lived experiences of self-concept. The resulting major themes that emerged address: (1) The Process in Understanding Lived Experiences that Formed the Self, (2) The Impact of Lived Experiences on Engagement in Different Forms of the Self, (3) The Impact of Lived Experiences on the Body in the World, and (4) The Lived Experience of Weight on the Self. As a result of the findings, by incorporating a therapeutic approach to current interventions in overweight and obesity, counselling psychologists can provide clients with the opportunity to explore their self-concept as a whole. Treating the physical size of weight alone does not allow space to identify any underlying factors of the behaviour. Consequently, this research underscores that preventive measures should extend beyond just physical weight, aiming to uncover any underlying factors that may be influencing the behaviour. This understanding can serve as a foundation for therapy to address the behaviour at its core. All of which demonstrates how this research is an essential addition to the literature on phenomenological work with overweight and obesity to help tackle this ongoing global concern.