1/ Eating behaviours - Explanations for food preferences

Question 1

what are the 2 explanations for food preferences I need to know?

Answer 1

1. evolutionary explanations - neophobia and taste aversion

2. the role of learning in food including social and cultural influences

Question 2

why might we have a food preference in sweet tastes in the evolutionary explanation?

Answer 2

sweetness is a signal of high sugar - good source of energy and calories - improved the chance of survival for ancestors.
sweetness is also associated with ripeness - an adaptive function.

Question 3

what is a strength for the fact we have a preference in sweet foods?

Answer 3

facial expressions of new born babies show preference for sweet foods - they cannot of learnt this, it must be innate.

Question 4

what is evidence that challenged our preference in sweet foods?

Answer 4

Copper Eskimos showed disgust at first taste of sweet foods - preference may not be universal.

Question 5

why might we have a food preference in salty tastes in the evolutionary explanation?

Answer 5

essential for functions in body as sodium is important for neural and muscular processes and it tops up levels of sodium.

Question 6

what is a strength for the fact we have a preference in salty foods?

Answer 6

study found babies preferred salty cereals than unsalted, bread milk is low in salt so they couldn’t have learnt this preference suggesting it is innate.

Question 7

why might we have a food preference in high fat tastes in the evolutionary explanation?

Answer 7

• give us lot of energy

- pleasure response to fat - immediately appealing so it suggests its an innate response.

Question 8

what is a strength for the fact we have a preference in fatty foods?

Answer 8

chimps after being starved went straight to the fattiest parts of the kill - the brain and bone marrow rather then th tender nutritious flesh.

Question 9

what PA does having a preference in fatty foods have?

Answer 9

helps us understand obesity levels, therefore reduce the amount of fatty foods available.

Question 10

what is a weakness for ALL salty, fatty and sweet foods explained by the evolutionary explanation?

Answer 10

lacks falsifiability - cannot test he claims as cannot go back in time - some critics claim in is guesswork and pseudoscientific.

Question 11

what is meany by neophobia?

Answer 11

fear of new foods, neophobia reduces as we learn through experience that unfamiliar foods are safe to eat - young children think new foods are poisonous.

Question 12

what evidence is there to support the concept of neophobia?

Answer 12

those children given unfamiliar fruits more often than not reduced their neophobia more quickly - supports the idea its adaptive.

Question 13

what are two weaknesses of neophobia?

Answer 13

1. lacks falsifiability
2. supposed to b a species based behaviour but not all children have a fear of eating new foods. - doesn’t account for individual differences.

Question 14

what is meant by the evolutionary explanation innate taste aversion?

Answer 14

avoids foods that are unpleasant e.g. bitter or sour tastes as it may be a sign of poison.

Question 15

what evidence is there for innate taste aversion?

Answer 15

facial expressions of babies show disgust towards bitter tastes and will spit them out - must be innate as they have not had the chance the learn to hate bitter foods.

Question 16

what evidence is there to challenge taste aversion?

Answer 16

unable to account individual differences - some avoid and some cannot taste bitterness at all so it may be a gene.

Question 17

what is a weakness of taste aversion?

Answer 17

research has shown bitter foods like red wine, soy products have chemicals in that may protect us against cancer - so why would we avoid them as it increases our chance or survival.

Question 18

what is a weakness for the evolutionary explanation?

Answer 18

deterministic - assumes that humans have no choice in what they eat - e.g. we have no choice in eating fatty foods so should the NHS refuse treatment for obesity related illnesses.

Question 19

how do we learn food preferences?

Answer 19

through experiences rather than innate and evolutionary factors.

Question 20

how can food preferences be learnt through classical conditioning?

Answer 20

flavour-flavour associate one flavour we already like with a new one

Question 21

how can food preferences be learnt through operant conditioning?

Answer 21

reward process e.g. parents may reward child for eating certain foods e.g. eating all their vegetables - they’re rewarded so they eat them again

Question 22

what research is there to support the role of operant conditioning?

Answer 22

investigated with pre-school children- told story about two imaginary foods called hoop and hule. 2 conditions - a non reward (offered one food first then the other) and a reward (you can only have hoop if you eat hule) in story. showed a food preference in reward condition (reward food) and not in non-reward.

Question 23

what evidence is there to support the role of social learning in food preferences?

Answer 23

used peer modelling to changes children’s preference for vegetables, 4 consecutive days sat next to children who preferred different vegetables and saw a definite shift in their vegetable preference.

Question 24

what practical applications does social learning for food preferences have?

Answer 24

parenting - shows us that using one food (ice cream) as a reward for eating broccoli is not effective - just increases the preference for reward food rather than the target food. - therefore could offer rewards such as apples.

Question 25

how could culture influence our food preferences?

Answer 25

culture provides us with norms and ideals centred around food. - normal eating behaviours.

Question 26

what evidence is there to support the role of cultural influences in food preferences?

Answer 26

compared two diets of ethnic communities living close to each other with equal assess to shops and food. Muslims intake of carbohydrates was twice the christian community.

Question 27

what study shows the importance of cultural influences in altering food preferences?

Answer 27

innate dislike of the burn of a chilli however in some cultures it is a part of the diet - children are gradually and repeatedly given chillies to eat, by the age of 6 most have become a chilli lover from a chilli hater.