Eating behaviour

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Why do parents inevitably affect the attitudes to food and eating behaviour if their children? (AO1)
They control what foods and bought and served in the home.
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What did Ogden (2004) report? and what does this imply? (AO1)
Consistent correlations between parents and their children concerning snack food intake, eating motivations and body dissatisfaction.This implies that children ate similar snacks as parents but they also developed similar attitudes and body dissatisf
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Outline Meyer and Gast (2008) (AO2)
Supports view observing others. They surveyed 10-12 year old children and found a significant positive correlation between peer influence and disordered eating.
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Outline Birch and Fisher (2000) (AO2)
In a study other mothers and daughters, they found that the best predictors of the daughters eating behaviour were the mothers dietary restraint and their perception of the risks of the daughters becoming overweight.
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Duncker (1938) conducted a study where children observed a series of role models, including other children, their mother and an unknown adult making food choices, what did they find?(AO2)
The findings showed that all the role models had an impact on the children's subsequent good choices, except an unknown adult. Therefore, children are more likely to sample unfamiliar foods after they have seen a significant role model eat the food.
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What did Powell and Khan (1995) suggest? (AO1)
That body dissatisfaction and related eating concerns are more common in black or Asian women.
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What did Ball and Kennardy (2002) find when they studied over 14,000 women 18-23 in Australia? (AO1)
Results showed that for all ethnic groups, the longer spent in Australia the more they reported attitudes and eating concerns similar to women born in Australia (Acculturation effect)
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Research to support Powell and Khan comes from Mumford et al (1991) who found? (AO2)
That the incidence of bulimia was greater among Asian schoolgirls than among their white counterparts.
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Similarly Strigel-Moore et al found?(AO2)
More evidence for a drive for thinness among black girls than white girls.
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However both studies by Powell and Khan (1995) and Ball and Kennardy (2002) are both gender biased, which means? (AO2)
Both studies only looked at womens attitudes and eating concerns, these means that the target population is not properly represented because 25% of those who have eating disorders are men. The studies are therefore low in internal validity.
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What did Siever (1994) find?(AO2)
That in men, homosexuality is a risk factor in the development in disordered eating behaviours.
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What did Dornbush et al (1984) find when they surveyed 7000 American adolescents?(AO1)
They concluded that higher class females had a greater desire to be thin and were more likely to diet to achieve this than the lower class were.
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Research suggests that the relationship between social class and eating behaviour is not as simple, what did Story et al (1995) find?(AO2)
They found that in a sample of American student, higher social class was related to greater satisfaction with weight and lower rates of weight control behaviours, such as vomiting.
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The fact that some studies have failed to suggest that social class is a factor influencing attitudes to food may be because...(AO2)
The explanation is biological. Certain attitudes to food and preferences may have evolved from our ancestors. The evolutionary approach argues that we have evolved a preference for meat because it enabled our ancestors to survive.
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Explain Herman and Mack's restraint theory (AO1)
They developed the restraint theory as an attempt to explain both the causes and consequences associated with the cognitive restriction of food intake. They suggested that attempting not to eat actually increases probability of overeating.
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Explain the boundary model which Herman and Polivy (1984) created to try and understand why dieting may lead to overeating (AO1)
According to this model hunger keep food intake above a certain minimum level and satiety keeps food below and maximum level. Dieters have a desired intake once they have gone over this boundary they continue to eat until they reach satiety.
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However there are some weaknesses of Herman and Macks restraint theory, why does Ogden (1994) suggest obesity may not necessarily be caused by overeating but obesity may be a consequence of overeating if restraint is recommend as a treatment?(AO2)
Restraint theory suggests that restraint leads to to excess, yet treatment of obesity commonly recommends restraint as a solution to excessive weight gain. However, failed attempts to diet can leave obese individuals feeling depressed, a failure.
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Another weakness is that Ogden (2007) points out that...? (AO2)
Although dieters, bulimics and some anorexics report episodes of overeating, the behaviour restricting anorexics cannot be be explained using this theory. If trying not to eat results in overeating, how do some anorexics starve themselves?
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Research has shown that attempting to suppress or deny a thought frequently has the opposite effect, making it more prominent.Explain Wegner et als (1987) theory of ironic processes of mental control. (AO1)
According to this theory, attempts to suppress thoughts of foods such as pizza, increases dieters preoccupation with the foods they are trying to deny themselves. As soon as food is denied it simultaneously becomes more attractive.
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Explain Soetens et al (2006) experimental support for this theory. (AO2)
The disinhibited restrained group (those who tried to eat but over ate) used more thought suppression than other groups and also showed a slower rebound effect. This shows that restrained eaters who try to suppress thoughts tends to overeat and think
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However what did Wegner (1984) admit?(AO2)
That the 'ironic effects' observed in research are not particularly huge. As experimental effects go, they are detectable but far from overwhelming. However, such effects may underlie more serious pathological forms of eating behaviour,
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What does Redden (2008) suggest is the secret of successful dieting? (AO1)
The secret to a successful diet lies in the attention we pay to what is being eaten. He claims that people usually like experiences less as they repeat them. When it comes to dieting, this makes it harder to stick to a regime.Focus on specific detail
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What did Higgins and Gray (1999) find when they conducted a meta-analysis on the effectiveness of programmes which are aimed at replacing dieting with conventional eating?(AO2)
That participation in these programmes was associated with improvements in eating behaviour and psychological wellbeing and with weight stability.
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A problem with many studies of dieting success or failure is that they rely on personal accounts of individuals... meaning (AO2)
Such evidence is often used to justify claims concerning particular dieting strategies. But, anecdotal evidence has a number of problems that properly controlled scientific studies do not have.The main limitation is that memory is not 100% accurate.
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Another weakness is research in this area is generally cultural biased... (AO2)
Because some culture groups find it harder to diet successfully because of a naturally inclination to obesity. E.G. Asian adults are more prone to obesity than Europeans as found by Park et al (2001).
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What is homeostasis? (AO1)
Homeostasis involves mechanisms which both detect the state of internal environment and also correct the situation to restore the environment to its optimal state.There's also a lag between mechanisms operating to restore equilibrium and registering
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A weakness of the homeostatic explanation is that if a hunger mechanism was adpative...(AO2)
It would both anticipate and prevent energy deficits, not just react to them. As a result, the theory that hunger and eating are triggered only when energy resources fail below their desired level, is incompatible with the harsh reality...
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Researchers discovered that damage to the lateral hypothalamus(LH) in rats caused...(AO1)
A condition called aphagia (undereating). They also found that stimulation of the LH elicits feeding behaviour.
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These opposing effects of injury and stimulation, lead...(AO1)
Researchers to believe that they had found the "on switch to hunger".
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A neurotransmitter found in the thalamus called NPY is also thought to be important in turning on eating, what did Wickens (2000) find?(AO1)
When injected into the hypothalamus of rats, NPY causes them to immediately begin feeding even when satiated.
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What did Stanley et al (1986) find? (AO1)
Repeated injections of NPY into the hypothalamus of rats produces obesity in just a few days.
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There is research to support the view that NPY has an important role in eating behaviour, from Yang et al (2008) (AO2)
They found that NPY is produced by abdominal fat. The researchers suggest that this leads to a viscous circle where NPY produced in the brain leads to more eating and the production of more fat cells,which in turn produces more NPY and more fat cells
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Real world applications have arisen from the LH explanation because of Yang et als study (AO2)
By targeting individuals at risk of increased levels of neuropeptide Y, it should be possible to treat obesity; therefore this explanation has applications in health services to improve people’s lifestyles.
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The view that the LH was the "on switch" to eating turned out to have a few problems, for example...(AO2)
Damage to the LH caused problems in other aspects of behaviour (e.g. thirst and sex) rather than just hunger. Also more recent research has found that eating is controlled by neutral circuits that run throughout the brain and not just by the hypothal
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Furthermore, Marie et al (2005) genetically manipulated mice so they did not make NPY, they found...(AO2)
No significant decrease in their feeding behaviour.The researchers suggest that the hunger stimulated by injections of NPY may actually be an experimental error, in the flood of NPY during experimental manipulations could cause the behaviour not norm
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Researchers also found that damage to ventromedial hypothalamus caused rats....(AO1)
to overeat,causing a condition called hyperphagia. Similarly, the stimulation of this area inhibited feeding.
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This lead researchers to conclude...(AO1)
That the VMH signals "stop eating" as a result of glucose receptors in this area.
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What did Gold (1973) find? (AO1)
Damage to the nerve fibers passing through the VMH tends to also damage another area of the hypothalamus, the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) and it is now believed damage to this alone causes hyperphagia.
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Research into the effects of the VMH is inconclusive (AO2)
Subsequent research has failed to replicate Gold's findings with most studies showing that lesions in the VMH caused animals to eat more and gain weight.
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Overall, hunger and eating may not be purely under neural control which suggests...(AO2)
These biological explanations are reductionist accounts of eating behaviour because they fail to take into account psychological factors. For instance, Lutter et al.
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Lutter et al found... (AO2)
How the body produces extra qualities of the ghrelin hormone in response to the psychological state of stress. Ghrelin boosts appetite which leads to increased comfort eating as an eating behaviour. Therefore blocking gherlin would help...
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Evolutionary theorists offer an alternative explanation.(AO2)
They propose that the primary influence for hunger and eating is not homeostasis, but food’s positive-incentive value, i.e. people eat because they develop a taste for foods that promote their survival, such as a preference for meat high in nutrients
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It has been shown that preference for fatty foods would have been adaptive for early humans because...(AO1)
Conditions in the Environment of Evolutionary Adaptation (EEA) meant that energy resources were vital in order to survive and find your next meal.
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This preference for fatty foods can explain why in...(AO1)
Todays society we tend to eat foods which are rich in calories. In the EEA, calories weren't as plentiful as they are today, so it explains why we have evolved a distinct preference for food high in calories, like chocolate.
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Gibson and Wardle (2001) provided evidence to support the view that we have evolved a preference for calorie rich foods. They...(AO2)
Offered children aged 4 and 5 different fruits&vegetables. Bananas&potatoes are quite high in calories&were most likely to by chosen by the children. This shows an evolved preference for high calories foods-children have no knowledge of nutrition.
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On the other hand, methodological issues raise doubts over the internal validity of the study because...(AO2)
It could be that the children were attracted to the certain fruits because of their soft texture, therefore making the evolutionary explanation of food preference hard to support.
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Furthermore, a limitation of this is approach is that the evolutionary hypothesis... (AO2)
Are hard to test because we cannot go back to the EEA. The preference for fatty, high calorie foods may be because of something else, such as advertising. These are 'proximate' causes.
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Early humans also began to include a lot of meat in their diets to....(AO1)
Compensate for the decline in quality of plant foods because of the receding forests.
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Fossil evidence suggests that early human diets were derived primarily from animal based foods, such as liver which were rich source of energy, which suggests why Milton (2008) claims...(AO1)
That because meat was so full of nutrients, if early humans did not have any/enough in their diets they would have not gained enough nutrients to evolve into the active, intelligent creatures they are today. 10% people in Europe vegetarian.
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A study by Abrams(1987) supports Miltons claims.(AO2)
Abrams showed that all societies today display a preference for animal foods and fats. Nor would it have been possible for early humans to be completely vegetarian because they would not have gained sufficient nutrients from the plants and grains
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Despite this research, Cordain et al (2006) suggested that...(AO2)
Early humans consumed most of their calories from sources other than saturated animal fats. This led to the suggestion that our ancestors may have been vegetarian in the EEA, as its believed early humans tried to be as healthy as possible...
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It has been suggested that early humans developed "taste aversions" to certain foods. Garcia et al (1955) tested taste aversions in rats(AO1)
They found that rats who had been made ill through radiation, shortly after eating saccharin, developed a taste aversion to it because they associated it with their illness.
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The development of taste aversions would have helped our ancestors survive because...(AO1)
If they believed they had been poisoned by a food they wouldn't have eaten it again. Once learned, such taste aversions are hard to shift. This could explain why in today's society...
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A study by Selgiman (1970) supports the view that early humans developed taste aversions as a way of enhancing their chance of survival...(AO2)
Seligman claimed that different species evolved different learning abilities, he called it 'biological preparedness'.This natural selection of differential learning has occurred so that each species has the ability to learn different associations
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The study of taste aversions has had an effective real life application. The research has been used to (AO2)
Solve pest problems, by encouraging the use of stronger poisons or chemicals that don't allow the rodents to survive. This is especially useful for farmers who have crops ruined by pests.
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On the other hand, not all food preferences can be traced back to the EEA...(AO2)
A trait that is beneficial today, such as low cholesterol foods, would not have evolved because of its beneficial effects for our ancestors. The evolutionary approach only considers biological factors (nature) but other things such as parents must...
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It is a widely held belief that Western standards of attractiveness are...(AO1)
A contributory factor to the development of anorexia nervosa. Numerous studies have found that teenagers, especially girls, are dissatisfied with their body weight.
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Gregory et al (1998) found? (AO1)
16% of 15-18 year old girls in the UK were currently 'on a diet'.This suggests that in western cultures where it is considered attractive to be thin women are more likely to develop abnormal eating which result in AN as a way of becoming attractive.
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However, the study by Gregory et al is gender biased, as it only focuses on girls... (AO2)
25% of those who suffer from an eating disorder are male, so the target population is not properly being analysed therefore reducing the internal validity of the study.Also, the results obtained may not be the same for men so cannot be generalised..
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Hoek et al conducted a study which contradicts the idea that the incidence of AN would be lower in non-western cultures because they don't place the same values on attractiveness.(AO2)
The researchers examined the records of 44,192 people admitted to hospital between 1987 and 1989 in Curacao (a non westernised Caribbean island where it is acceptable to be overweight). They found 6 cases of AN, very similar to western cultures.
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The fact that the rate of AN appears to be the same or very similar in both western and non western cultures give the impression... (AO2)
That there must be biological factors involved in the cause of anorexia nervosa. These biological factors may include a disturbance in neurotransmitters, including serotonin.
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It is believed that in black populations in western cultures the incidence of AN is lower than in white populations. Grabe and Hyde (2006) conducted...(AO1)
A meta-analysis of 98 studies and found that the incidence of AN was lower in Caucasian populations than black or Hispanic populations. This suggests that ethnicity is a contributory factor in anorexia nervosa.
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However, Cachelin et al..(AO2)
Found no significant difference in the occurrence of anorexia nervosa within black, caucasian and hispanic populations. This criticises Grabe and Hyde and suggests that ethnicity is not a contributory factor in the development of AN.
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Furthermore, Roberts et al (2006) report...(AO2)
That it is only older adolescents in white populations that have a higher incidence of AN than black populations. This weakens Grabe and Hydes argument and implies ethnicity is not a significant factor in AN.
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Hilde Bruch (1973) came up with the psychodynamic explanation for AN which suggests...(AO1)
That AN is the result of unconscious unresolved problems from childhood.
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Bruch looked at the difference between effective and ineffective parents... (AO1)
The children of ineffective parents will grow up confused about their internal needs, leaving them feeling unable to cope. As a way of overcoming the helplessness they take excessive control over their body weight and size, resulting in AN.
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Hilde Bruch's theory is supported by Stiener et al, who found (AO2)
The parents of children with anorexia nervosa would often 'anticipate' their childs needs rather than allowing them to 'feel' hungry.
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Furthermore, Button and Warren examined a group of anorexia sufferers for 7 years after they were diagnosed with anorexia... (AO2)
These individuals relied excessively on the options of others and felt a lack of control over their own lives which aligns with Bruch's theory.
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It has been suggested that a disturbance of serotonin can result in AN, Bailer et al (2007)compared serotonin activity in women... (AO1)
Recovering from restricting type AN and binging/purging type AN. They found higher serotonin activity in the women recovering from binging/purging type. They also found those with the highest levels of serotonin had highest anxiety levels.
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A weakness of the Bailer et al study is that it is gender bias because they only used female participants... (AO2)
This does not take into account the whole target population (those with AN) because 25% of those with AN are male. This shows AN is not exclusively a female problem and the study is therefore low in internal validity because it is not representative.
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Another weakness is that the rise in serotonin activity and anxiety may be a consequence of AN not the causes... Kaye et al (2001) (AO2)
Found that SSRI's which are used to lower serotonin levels can only be used on those with AN when malnutrition has been fixed and helped. This suggests that high serotonin levels may be the consequence of AN not the cause. The cause may be psychologi
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Anorexia nervosa can also be the result of a persons neurodevelopment. It had been suggested that pregnancy or birth complications can be the cause of AN. What did Lindberg and Hjern (2003) find? (AO1)
A significant association between premature birth and the development of AN. Also, birth complications may lead to brain damage caused by hypoxia (lack of oxygen) impairing the neurodevelopment of the child. This may directly trigger AN or indirectly
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Favaro et al (2006) followed a group of children from birth to adulthood and found? (AO2)
That placental infarction (obstructed bloody supply in the placenta) was associated with the risk of developing AN because it caused early eating difficulties which may be unconsciously carried on throughout the childs life.
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The reproductive suppression hypothesis can explain one of the charcteristics of AN, which is amenorrhoea. Surbey (1987) suggests...(AO1)
That adolescent girls desire to control their weight represents an evolutionary adaptation in which ancestral females delayed the onset of sexual maturation (periods) in response to probability of poor reproductive success.
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The ability to delay the reproduction would have been adaptive because.. (AO1)
It enabled a female to avoid giving birth at a time when conditions are not conducive to her offsprings survival. This suggests that modern day women develop AN because of an evolved tendency to want to stop their periods so they wont get pregnant.
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This hypothesis is supported by... (AO2)
The observation that menarche (the onset of puberty) is delayed in prepubertal girls with AN. Additionally, since amenorrhoea is a typical characteristic of AN, this means that reproduction is effectively suspended in anorexic females.
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However, this hypothesis is gender bias, as only women experience amenorrhoea and mentioned within the reproductive suppression hypothesis... (AO2)
According to recent statistics 25% of adults with eating disorders are men. This means that the reproduction suppression hypothesis is low in internal validity because it does not represent the whole of the target population.
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Although the biological explanations of AN are reductionist, they do have a significant real world application.. (AO2)
In America, several people with AN are refused treatment because it was assumed that AN was not "biologically based" and was caused by the own persons behaviour. Research into biological explanations has meant more people can get treatment for AN.
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Card 2

Front

What did Ogden (2004) report? and what does this imply? (AO1)

Back

Consistent correlations between parents and their children concerning snack food intake, eating motivations and body dissatisfaction.This implies that children ate similar snacks as parents but they also developed similar attitudes and body dissatisf

Card 3

Front

Outline Meyer and Gast (2008) (AO2)

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

Outline Birch and Fisher (2000) (AO2)

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

Duncker (1938) conducted a study where children observed a series of role models, including other children, their mother and an unknown adult making food choices, what did they find?(AO2)

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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