Psych Model Obesity

• Restraint theory - Define

  Attempting to suppress or deny a thought actually has the opposite effect - making the thought more prominent
• Restraint theory - research

  • Herman and Mack - attempting not to eat or think about food leads to preoccupation with food.
  • this increases the chances of overeating therefore restraint is counter productive and self defeating.
  • Overtime, instead of weight loss, it leads to weight gain which leads to obesity
• Restraint theory - two types of restraint

  • rigid restraints - unrealistic e.g. extremely low calorie limits
  • flexible restraints - less strict e.g. just cutting out sugar
  • Positive correlation between those who engage in rigid restraint and body fat, waist circumference and BMI
• Boundary Model - normally what we do

  • Normally, we eat until we are full - based on a physiological limit - based on body weight set point
• Boundary model - what restrained eaters do

  • restrained eaters - cognitive boundary - to restrain the amount they eat. Thus have two limits - physiological one and self imposed cognitive one
  • Restrained eaters try to eat up to or less than their self imposed cognitive boundary
• Boundary model - if restrained eaters go past their cog boundary

  • if they go over it, they eat beyond their physiological limit experiencing the "what the hell" effect
• Boundary Model - what if they place the cog boundary too low

  • if they place the cog boundary too low they're more likely to keep going over it often and eating a lot more.
  • With time, the physiological limit shifts to allow them to eat more, leading to obesity
• Disinhibition - define

  • the tendency to over eat in response to diff stimuli
• Disinhibition - normally what happens

  • Normally our inhibitions prevent us from over eating.
• Disinhibition - what causes it

  • There are certain stimuli that can cause the removal of these inhibitions thus leading to disinhibition e.g. certain food related stimuli which can be internal or external can lead to disinhibition which are known as disinhibitors
• Disinhibition - types of disinhibition

  • H - Habitual
  • E - Emotional
  • S - Situational
• Habitual disinhibition

  • individuals overeat in response to everyday situations.
  • they develop a habit of overeating and over eat to stay in line with the habit.
  • the habit itself is a disinhibitor
• Emotional disinhibition

  • overeat in response to specific emotional states
  • e.g. eat more when sad or anxious
• Situational disinhibition

  • overeat in response to specific environmental cues
  • e.g. wedding parties or a buffet
• S - research support for restraint theory. Wardle and Beales randomly assigned 27 obese women - restrained diet group, exercise group or a non-treatment group over 7 weeks. Found over several assessments, women = restrained diet ate more than women in exercise and non-treatment group as predicted by restraint theory. S bc - when a diet involves restraint, can lead to over eating - plausible that restraint can lead to obesity. Decrease V
• W - restraint theory - contradictory evidence for effect of restraint. Laessle found - some dieters can successfully reduce calorie intake by 400 kcal's less than unrestrained eaters + eat less food high in carbs + fat content. Shows restraint itself doesn't always lead to overeating and thus obesity. + fails to explain why ppl suffering from anorexia are able to restrain until they sig lose weight as according to restraint theory, their preoccupation with food should've lead to them overeating. As this isn't the case - shows restraint doesn't always lead to overeating and obesity. Decrease V
• EVAL points for psych model of obesity

  • S - support for restraint theory (Wardle and Beales)
  • S - support for boundary model (Herman and Mack)
  • W - contradictory evidence for effect of restraint (Laessle)
  • W - boundary model - relies on evidence from highly artificial lab experiments (Tomiyama)
  • W - disinhibition - research it's based on lacks generalisability (Atlas et al)
• S - support for Boundary Model. Herman + Mack - group of dieters and non-dieters either a high or low calorie preload. Found - non-dieters used compensatory regulatory beh and ate less during the taste test after the high calorie preload. Dieters ate more in the taste test if they had the high calorie preload than when they had the low calorie preload. S bc shows that when restrained eaters go beyond their cog limit, due to receiving the high calorie preload, they do infact exp the "what the hell" effect and therefore overeat. Plausible that this effect will lead to obesity. Increase V
• W - boundary model relies on evidence from highly artificial lab exp. Most R into the boundary model are lab exp + usually show restrained eaters overeat after they violate their diet. Tomiyama et al argued that outside of this artificial setting, restrained eaters are able to control their eating. Two studies found dieters who tracked food intake over a period of days didn't overeat after violations of their diet. W bc ...
• (W - boundary model relies on evidence from highly artificial lab exp - Tomiyama)... W bc shows evidence boundary model relies on is artificial, thus concs from those studies regarding the effect of restraint on eating beh may be invalid. How restraint effects eating beh in studies may not reflect how it effects eating beh IRL. Chair logic
• W - disinhibition - the research it's based on, lacks generalisability. Majority of the research on disinhibition is restricted to white women, making it difficult to generalise conclusions to men and other ethnicities. Atlas et al found significantly lower restraint and disinhibition scores in African American students compared to white college students, suggesting disinhibited eating behs may be less prevalent among African American women. W bc shows that the way disinhibition affects eating beh, may not be consistent across all populations. Understanding decreases V