Eating Behaviour

• Food Preferences (due to EEA)

  Salt - Essential for cell functions

  Fat - High calories for long term energy

  Sweet - Signifies ripeness, sugar for short term energy
• Neophobia and Taste Aversion


  Neophobia - A reluctance / aversion to eating new foods in case they're harmful (innate) :) - Mald

  Taste Aversion - An aversion to foods which don't taste nice as they may be harmful (learned)
• Neophobia and Taste Aversion

  Neophobia - An innate reluctance / aversion to eating new foods in case they're harmful (Maladaptive due to the improved hygiene of modern food, Perry et al - Avoidance of new foods is associated with poor dietary quality in children)

  
  

  Taste Aversion - A learned aversion to foods which don't taste nice as they may be harmful (Garcia et al - rats associated food with radiation and wouldn't eat the food again)
• Influences on Food Preferences (learning)

  Classical Conditioning - Adding a nice flavour to something that you don't like so that you begin the associate the good taste with it (flavour - flavour learning)

  SLT - Seeing your parents or friends eat and enjoy something will cause you to like it too (Greenhaigh et al - children will copy the eating behaviour of their role models)

  Operant Conditioning - You'll eat the food which tastes nice and stop eating food which you have an adverse reaction too
• Influences on Food Preferences (cultural)

  Food preferences vary based on culture

  • Family sit down meals have reduced, eating in front of the TV has increased
  • Eating offal is common in Europe but doesn't happen in the U.S
  • Religious restrictions - Muslims don't eat pork
• Ventromedial and Lateral Hypothalamus

  Lack of glucose leads to Ghrelin from the stomach activating the LH, increase in glucose causes the VH to turn eating off
• Genetic Explanations of AN

  First degree relatives of AN sufferers are 10x more likely to develop themselves

  Out of 2000 females, the concordance rate for MZ twins was 58%

  Strength - Supported by research (CP - MZ twins grew up in the same environment so might not be due to genetics)

  Weakness - Biologically reductionist
• Neural Explanations of AN

  Higher levels of serotonin and dopamine found in individuals with AN, sufferers may be unable to regulate their emotions due to errors in the limbic system

  Supported by Kaye, PET scans found overactive dopamine receptors in AN sufferers

  Strength - Supported by research evidence (Kaye)

  Weakness - Biologically reductionist
• Family Systems Theory

  • Enmeshment - Extreme proximity, intensity and over involvement - AN develops as you can't cope with the stressors
  • Autonomy - Placing restraints and not allowing for independence to be fostered - AN develops due to feelings of restriction
  • Control - Overprotective and family - AN develops due to a need to rebel
  • Rigidity - Family struggle to adapt to new situations
  • Lack of conflict resolution - Family have a low capacity for conflict and present themselves as fine when they're not - AN develops due to unresolved conflicts
  • Triangulation - Child is encouraged to ally with one family member and reject another - AN develops due to being in an uncomfortable position
• Evaluation of FST

  Strengths:

  Manzani - Enmeshment is linked to poor mental health across cultures

  Applications - Family intervention is one of the most successful treatments of AN (Carr)

  Weaknesses:

  Environmentally reductionist

  Gynocentric as it focuses primarily on mother - daughter relationship
• SLT

  SLT is an environmental explanation for AN

  Girls observe role models in their parents (parental modelling), adverts and models who display unrealistic beauty standards

  Occurs between teens who share dieting tips (peer reinforcement)

  More common in females
• Evaluation of SLT

  Strengths - Supported by research (Becker, increase in AN once TV's were introduced to Fiji)

  Strengths - Supported by research - Supported by research (Harrison + Cantor, strong correlation between reading magazines and your attitude to eating and dieting)

  Weakness - Environmentally reductionist
• Cognitive Explanations


  Distortions - False perceptions of yourself and your body which don't line up with reality. Occur as a result of comparing yourself to others, leads to feelings of disgust.

  Irrational Beliefs - Faulty, unrealistic beliefs (e.g "I must be thin to be liked") which lead to self defeating habits.
• Cognitive Explanations pt. 2

  Transdiagnostic Model - The underlying cause of AN is due to an overestimation of weight and appearance. AN sufferers have a desire for control, eating very little makes them feel as if they're in control
• Cognitive Explanations Evaluation

  Strengths - Supported by research, Lang et al - AN very rigid in their thinking compared to controls

  Weaknesses - Highly reliant on self report methods, lacks empiricism

  Weaknesses - Machine reductionism, reduces a complex condition to simple features
• Genetic Explanations for Obesity

  Strengths - Supported by research evidence - meta analysis (75,000 PP's) found heritability estimates of 74% for MZ and 32% for DZ, even MZs raised separately have similar BMIs

  Strengths - Supported by research evidence - 540 adopted adults – BMI more likely similar to biological parents than adoptive parents

  Weaknesses - Biologically reductionist
• Neural Explanations of Obesity


  The hypothalamus monitors blood sugar levels and produces a desire to eat, malfunction in this area could lead to over eating. Leptin acts to decrease feeding and promote energy. Disruption of leptin signalling can lead to obesity.
• Psychological Explanations of Obesity


  Restraint Theory - Lack of restraint is common in obese people so they attempt to impose rigid restraints, when they pass the restraint they begin overeating - "All or nothing effect"

  Boundary Model - Restrained eaters have a lower hunger threshold and a higher threshold for satiety, (larger zone of biological indifference). They set themselves a cognitive diet boundary which when they pass, leads to the "all or nothing effect"

  Disinhibition - Emotional, Situational, Habitual (In response to daily life)
• Evaluation of the Psychological Explanation of Obesity

  Strength:

  Supported by research evidence - Herman + Mac - Unrestrained eaters ate ice cream until they were full, restrained eaters who had already had a milkshake ate even more on ice cream

  Weakness:

  Cultural / Gender Bias - Research primarily uses samples of American women
• Success and Failure of Dieting

  Attention Allocation - Restrained eaters find it difficult to withdraw attention from attractive thoughts about eating

  Hedonic Eating - Dieters are more sensitive to pleasurable properties of food and will break diets because of the perceived pleasure that eating it will give

  Role of Denial (Wenger) - Denying a though makes you think about it more – asked ½ of ppts not to think about a white bear and ring bell if they did, asked ½ to think about white bear and ring bell if they did – those asked not to think about it rang bell more often
• Success and Failure of Dieting pt.2

  Successful Dieting (Redden) - Dieters should focus on specific details of food so that they get less bored and will stick to the diet
• Evaluation of the Success and Failure of Dieting

  Strength: Supported by evidence -Brunstrom et al - Dieters showed a greater salivatory response to a hot pizza which was nearby them compared to non dieters

  Weakness: Gender Bias / Gynocentric - Samples for these studies are primarily women