explanations for the success of dieting

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  • Created by: imanilara
  • Created on: 21-02-16 17:37

Restraint Theory AO1

HERMAN + MACK

-restrained eating=reduced food intake. Studies have shown that restrained eaters consume fewer calories than non-restrained eaters through dieting. 
-some factors increase success: health reasons, belief that obesity has psych causes not biological, being dissatisfied w body, a significant life event eg divorce

-these indicate cognitions are key as well as behaviour...C approach can help understand dieting:
-overreating during a diet is faulty thinking-"what the hell effect" (have one biscuit eat them all) 
-key to maintaining diet is to tackle negative thoughts that make it hard to control eating+to have strategies in difficult situations eg socialising. 

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Restraint theory AO2

Theory suggests that CBT is the way - focus on identification of thoughts and situations+ managing them through skills, rehearsal and training 

-Supported by observation: dieting among obese people creates inital rapid weight loss in first 6 months. After this, relapse is more likely to occur and failure to maintain the behaviour change towards food is the reason. This could be bc lack of knowledge, skills to manage a relapse, as well as dealing w the negative side effects eg hunger, stress+ social pressure JEFFREY 2000

--> supports bc suggests that success comes from teaching skills that have a cognitive element rather than mainly focusing on restraining the eating.
-Issues w observation: GOOD- high ecol. val BAD- usually done on small samples- low pop val., lack of control and so low internal val, and because of this, causal conclusions cannot be drawn 

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Social Support AO1

Helps people to:
-stick to diet
-focus on long term goals
-manage stressful situations eg times of stress where overeating is likely 

OR maybe we are just more motivated by pleasing others than by fulfilling personal goals-social pressure can both break a diet and motivate one. 

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Social Support AO2

Supporting evidence:
Thomas+Stern (1995)- teaching spouses to provide support during diet results in greater success of the diet 

Miller Kovach et Al (2001)- Weight Watchers is more successful than self-help methods over 2 year period- GOOD-longitudinal-can see changes over time, BAD-participant attrition/attrition bias- people may have dropped out and have uneven p's in each group 
-->supports **, bc WW is focused on having regular group meetings+weigh ins with support from the group

Lowe et Al 2004- weight loss achieved through WW was maintained over 5year period
-Research probably funded by WW-biased-investigator effects or only used the info from those who didnt drop out- attrition bias
-WW clients- biased sample- they are more motivated!

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Detail AO1+AO2

REDDEN 2008:

Successful dieting related to attention paid to the food being eaten, if you eat the same thing day in and day out it becomes boring and harder to stick to regime:better to focus on components and not the whole things, eg w Salad, not "just another salad" but the tomato, the rocket etc.-->HELPS MAINTAIN DIET

AO2: 
-135 Ps 22 jelly beans each, one group shown specific info about the beans and the other just "bean number 7"-P's in the second group got v bored and didnt enjoy the task- supports bc they didnt have detail and so were demotivated 
-However, you can't compare diets to beans-people like them
-but other studies show that people eat more when there is variety suggesting that it is variety and NOT detail that increases success of dieting 

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IDA

Nature/Nature- We may have natural set point where the body has its ideal weight and therefore dieting and going below the set point just causes the body to restore its weight-cognitive explanations therefore become redundant under the nature argument

Determinism- Is weight genetically determined and possible to be shifted from set-point with free will power

Gender bias- most research looks into female dieting, therefore beta bias. There needs to be more research w men because weight gain is more risky-they gain weight on their abdomen which is linked to health problems

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