COGNITIVE THEORY

• KEY POINTS OF COGNITIVE THEORY?

  cognitive distortions and irrational beliefs
• COGNITIVE DISTORTIONS?

  • process information in unhealthy way
  • perceptual errors due to weight-based schemas
  • preoccupied with food intake and weight loss
  • perceive themselves to be bigger than reality
  • believe others perceive them as fat when they do not
• EVALUATION OF COGNITIVE DISTORTIONS?

  + McKenzie

  -low explanatory power
• MCKENZIE?

  • interviewed female AN patients
  • compared to control group of women, same age
  • AN overestimated body sizes
  • ideal body size of AN was lower than control group
  • AN believed eating a sugary snack would directly increase weight
• LOW EXPLANATORY POWER?

  • only states cognitive distortions occur
  • not explain cause of cognitive distortions
  • not explain why only some have cognitive distortions
• IRRATIONAL BELIEFS?

  • all or nothing thinking
  • catastrophic thinking
  • negative self-labelling
• EVALUATION OF IRRATIONAL BELIEFS?

  + Sternheim et al

  + soft determinism
• STERNHEIM ET AL?

  • qualitative thematic analysis
  • 29 AN patients
  • compared to 37 healthy control
  • catastrophizing interviews
  • AN patients had more steps
• SOFT DETERMINISM?

  • free will over response to thinking
  • control over recovery
  • real world application