learning theory key question

• is the influence of models and celebrities something that causes anorexia
• anorexia symptoms start off with:

  1. restrictive energy intake leading to low body weight
  2. intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat
  3. disturbance in the way in which ones body weight or shape is experienced
• real life situation 1

  jade is a person who has anorexia and is using her blog to promote anorexic behaviour

  • aim is to provide "tips, trick and information" for others who are in the grip of an eating disorder
  • her readers are "girls who are desperate in their anorexia - they are sick but they don't see it as an illness. "i've been anorexic for 10yrs and i know this is the way i want to live"
• real life situation 2

  jade is part of a growing international group of "pro-ana" (anorexia) and "pro-mia" (bulimia) bloggers who perceive their illness as a lifestyle

  • communities glamosrising eating disorders have been around for decades
  • jade's is part of a worrying new generation of personal blogs and social network users who have turned anorexia/bulimia into an aspirational state
• why modelling the behaviour of anorexia bloggers is an issue for society

  • research suggests that among girls aged 15, there are 57.8 new cases of anorexia per 100,000 girls each year
  • with social media blogs = younger generation more able to access models and celebrities that portray beauty in a certain way (e.g: instagram, tiktok)
  • research suggests people with anorexia find it more difficult to study and concentrate in class (maybe worried about appearance)
• social learning theory as an explanation for anorexia
• attention - model for behaviour is the bloggers who share posts of themselves on social media being "thinspirations" for others and followers pay attention to anorexia tips and behaviours
• retention - followers retain images of influencers bodies and anorexic behaviours like how to hide weight loss
• reproduction - potential to reproduce body type themselves by copying to dieting/purging behaviour bloggers exhibit
• motivation - comes from the fact that these blogs get lots of praise on social media so some may feel vicariously reinforced to want to imitate the model due to this support - jade may be a similar age + sex to someone who also wants to lose weight
• how does SLT answer the situation

  suggests that bloggers that "thinspire" - jade could partly be the responsible for the increase prevalence of anorexia in society with her blogs as people see her as a role model and copy that behaviour
• operant conditioning as an explanation for anorexia
• positive reinforcement - when jade blogged about her journey she could have gotten positive reinforcement from followers who give likes on social media
• negative reinforcement - as jade got thinner she may have had negative reinforcement (as she got thinner she hated her body less)
• positive punishment - jade may have seen celebs who have gained weight be shamed in the news so she would want to avoid gaining weight
• how does OC answer the key question

  as anorexia role models want to avoid being shamed they may keep a warped up image of what their bodies look like - enjoy reinforcement of young people