6/ Eating Behaviours - Psychological explanations for obesity

Question 1

what is meant by the restraint theory?

Answer 1

cognitive explanation - proposes that obesity is the result of trying to control food intake by going on a diet. but restrictions on our food we end up eating more, if you try and exert more cognitive control you will loose ‘ironic mental processes.

Question 2

what is meant by the boundary model?

Answer 2

explains how restraint eating leads to overeating - 2 boundaries biological and cognitive. obese people place a cognitive boundary at a lower level than the biological e.g. going on a diet but they may never feel full so it breaks the boundary and we get the “what the hell effect” and breaks biological boundary. e.g. I’ve eaten a piece a cake so I might as well eat the whole cake.

Question 3

what is meant by disinhibition?

Answer 3

means loss of control over eating influenced by other factors.

Question 4

what are the three disinhibitors and what do they mean?

Answer 4

1. emotional disinhibition - over eat in response to stress
2. situational disinhibition - over eat at e.g. weddings
3. habitual disinhibition - over eat due to everyday life - e.g. fast foods

Question 5

what research is there to support the restraint theory?

Answer 5

27 obese women randomly accoladed to 3 conditions: the diet group, the exercise group and the no intervention group. women in diet group ate significantly more than women in the other two conditions.

Question 6

what research supports the idea of disinhibition?

Answer 6

completed questionnaire about eating and relationships found that insecure attachments linked to obesity

Question 7

how is the restraint theory too simplistic?

Answer 7

psychologists have discovered two types of restraint 1. rigid restraint 2. flexible restraint and only rigid restraint leads to obesity, problem because boundary model treats restraint as a single behaviour.

Question 8

how is this theory of disinhibition ethnocentric and gender biased?

Answer 8

significantly lower restraint and disinhibition in African Americans than white students and focuses more on women rather than men

Question 9

what practical applications have we got from this theory ?

Answer 9

useful in planning effective diets which do not advise rigid restraint and do not create forbidden foods.