AQA A2 Psychology Unit 3 Eating Behaviour: Evolutionary Explanations Of Anorexia Nervosa Notes

A2 Psychology Unit 3 Eating Behaviour: Evolutionary Explanations Of Anorexia Nervosa Notes

What You Need To Know:

·  Evolutionary Explanations, for one eating disorder: Anorexia Nervosa.

Evolutionary explanations of anorexia nervosa:

Pseudopathology (Crawford, 1998)

·  A pseudopathology is an illness brought about by an entirely intact adaptive mechanism responding in a modern environment it was not designed for.

·  In terms of evolution, women strive to be attractive to men. In the past this will have meant being able to provide and carry children; now it means being thin.

·  The result is that there is an adaptive advantage to being thin.

·  The adaptation mechanism is in place and is working, but under the socio-cultural pressures of the media of today the result may be anorexia.

Adapted to Flee Famine Hypothesis (AFFH) (Guisinger, 2003)

·  Features of anorexia helped early humans to migrate to more plentiful environments in response to local famine.

·  Efficient migration meant switching off the usual adaptations to hunger (lethargy, energy conservation and hunger).

·  Therefore, restricting food intake, denial of starvation and hyperactivity could help migration.

·   Whilst no…