Eating Behaviours - Anorexia

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Attitudes to food and eating behaviour
Disordered attitudes to food is when the individual cannot maintain some degree of control over their eating behaviour. Our attitudes are influenced by many factors, like culture and family.
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Brown and Ogden (2004)
Reported consistent correlations between parents and their children in terms of snack food intake, eating motivations and body dissatisfaction.
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Garg et al (2007)
People watching a sad film ate 36% more popcorn than those watching a happy film. Wanted to 'get out of the dumps' so ate food which gave them a feeling of euphoria. When presented with nutritional info, consumption of unhealthy food dropped.
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Powell and Khan (1995)
Body dissatisfaction and related eating concerns and behaviours are more characteristic of white women than black or asian women.
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Birch and Fisher (2000)
The best predictors of the daughters' eating behaviour were the mothers' dietary restraint and their perception of the risks of the daughter becoming overweight.
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Streigel-Moore et al (1995)
Found more evidence of a 'drive for thinness' among black girls than among white girls.
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Issues, Debates and Arguments (IDA)
Gender bias - mainly focus on women, but is an issue with men also, Deterministic - suggests that we learn all eating behaviours not that we choose our own, Nurture debate - our attitudes depend on how we were raised.
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Explanations for the success or failure of dieting
Looks at the psychological reasons as to why an individual may succeed but often fails when dieting.
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Herman and Polivy (1984)
The boundary model - normal people have two boundaries (hunger and satiety) which they aim to be between, whilst dieters have a third boundary (diet boundary). A dieter has wider boundary between hunger and satiety,takes them longer to be hungry/full
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Wegner et al (1987)
Theory of ironic processes - asked participants to not think about a white bear, but ring a bell if they did. Those who were told not to rang the bell more, than those instructed to think about the bear.
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Wegner (1994)
'Ironic effects' observed in research are not particularly huge, they are detectable but not overwhelming.
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Redden (2008)
Jelly beans were given to participants one at a time. Half were given detailed information (such as flavour), and they enjoyed eating the jelly beans more.
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Higgins and Gray (1999)
Meta-analysis of the effectiveness of anti-dieting programmes. Found that participation in these programmes was associated with improvements in eating behaviour and psychological wellbeing and with weight stability rather than change.
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Issues, Debates and Arguments (IDA)
Cognitive approach - overly mechanistic doesn't consider social, environmental or motivational factors
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Neural mechanisms in eating and satiation
Developed a sophisticated physiology for dealing with the related states of hunger.
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Homeostasis
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Zhang et al (1994)
Some mice receive 2 genes for obesity. OB/OB mice have defective genes for the protein leptin, which causes fat loss and decreased appetite. When obese mice were injected with leptin, they lost weight dramatically.
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Rolls and Rolls (1973)
Surgically removing the amygdala in rats would cause the animals to consume both familiar and novel foods indiscriminately. Rats who still had their amygdala would only eat familiar foods.
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Zald and Pardo (1997)
Exposed a healthy adult to aversive smells whilst blood flow to the amygdala via a PET scan. Exposure to unpleasant odours led to increased blood flow to the amygdala, showing that the amygdala does influence food choices.
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Lutter et al (2008)
The body produces extra quantities of the hormone ghrelin in response to stress. Ghrelin boosts appetite, leading to increased comfort-eating.
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Issues, Debates & Arguments (IDA)
Nature - heavily relies on the idea of genetics, Deterministic - doesn't consider important factors such as environment and social aspects, Reductionist - reduces food choice down to hormones and proteins which is a limited view.
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Evolutionary explanations for food preferences
Why certain foods are adaptive, and certain eating preferences have evolved, particularly meat and calorie-rich foods.
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The Environment of Evolutionary Adaptation (EEA)
Early humans were hunter-gatherers. Preference for fatty foods would have been adaptive for early humans to ensure survival.
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Milton (2008)
It is unlikely that early humans could have secured enough nutrition from a vegetarian diet to evolve into the active and intelligent creatures they became.
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Garcia et al (1955)
Rats who had been made ill through radiation shortly after eating saccharin, developed an aversion to it and very quickly associated their illness with the saccharin.
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Gibson and Wardle (2001)
The best way to predict what fruit and veg would be preferred by a 4-5 year old was by how dense in calories the fruit/veg was. This shows an evolved preference for calorie-rich foods (bananas and potatoes).
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Bernstein and Webster (1980)
Gave cancer patients a novel-tasting ice cream prior to chemotherapy, and the patients acquired an aversion to that ice cream.
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Issues, Debates & Arguments (IDA)
Evolutionary - cultural influences not considered as other cultures may value certain foods, Nurture - learned what foods are most efficient for us (calories/meats/fruit and veg), Deterministic - assumes we will choose certain foods over others.
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Psychological explanations for anorexia nervosa
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Gregory et al (2000)
Found that 16% of 15-18 year old girls in the UK were 'currently on a diet'. Western cultures are more concerned with their body image.
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Hilde Bruch (1973)
Origins of AN are in early childhood. Children of ineffective parents may grow up confused about their internal needs and rely heavily on their parents. As an adolescent, they may only feel that they are able to control their body shape and size.
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Hoek et al (1998)
Anorexia is rare in non-Western cultures. Examined hospital records from 1987 to 1989 of 44,192 admittances. Only six were for anorexia, showing that it is rare in non-Western places (Curacao)
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Steiner et al (1991)
Parents of adolescents with AN have a tendency to define their children's physical needs rather than allowing their children to define their own.
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Button and Warren (2001)
People with AN rely excessively on the opinions of others, worry about how others view them and feel a lack of control over their lives.
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Issues, Debates & Arguments (IDA)
Ethical - sensitive research and raises questions like privacy and informed consent when using internet research, Nurture - depends on the way you were raised (Bruch), Deterministic - only some cultures affected by AN?
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Biological explanations for anorexia nervosa
Focuses on 'neural' and 'evolutionary' explanations of anorexia nervosa.
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Bailer et al (2007)
Compared serotonin activity in women recovering from restricting-type anorexia and binge-eating/purging type and healthy controls. Higher serotonin levels were found in the binge/purge type. Highest levels were found in those with anxiety.
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Surbey (1987)
Adolescent girls' desire to control their weight represents an evolutionary adaptation in which ancestral girls delayed the onset of sexual maturation in response to cues about the probability of poor reproductive success.
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Kaye et al (2001)
SSRI's were effective in preventing relapse in recovering anorexics. Malnutrition-related changes in serotonin function may negate the action of SSRIs, which only become effective when weight returns to a more normal level.
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Bulik (2006)
Suggests that if we could use an individual's genetic profile to indicate level of risk, it would be possible to develop specifically tailored prevention programmes. Reduces guilt for parents who assume that it is their fault.
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Issues, Debates & Arguments (IDA)
Deterministic - assumes everyone is biologically predispositioned to AN, Gender - very female based yet affects males too, Reductionist - reduces a complex condition to neurotransmitters/evolutionary aspects.
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Card 2

Front

Reported consistent correlations between parents and their children in terms of snack food intake, eating motivations and body dissatisfaction.

Back

Brown and Ogden (2004)

Card 3

Front

People watching a sad film ate 36% more popcorn than those watching a happy film. Wanted to 'get out of the dumps' so ate food which gave them a feeling of euphoria. When presented with nutritional info, consumption of unhealthy food dropped.

Back

Preview of the back of card 3

Card 4

Front

Body dissatisfaction and related eating concerns and behaviours are more characteristic of white women than black or asian women.

Back

Preview of the back of card 4

Card 5

Front

The best predictors of the daughters' eating behaviour were the mothers' dietary restraint and their perception of the risks of the daughter becoming overweight.

Back

Preview of the back of card 5
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