Eating Behaviour Flashcards
1
Q
What factors influence attitudes to food and eating behaviour?
A
Cultural influences, mood and health concerns.
2
Q
Which two areas of culture have been researched?
A
Ethnicity and social class.
3
Q
What studies have been completed about ethnicity? (2)
A
Powell and Khan- eating disorders are more characteristic of white women than black or Asian women.
Ball and Kennedy- studied 14,000 women aged 18-23 in Australia and found that the longer they spent their the more their attitudes to food became like native Australians.
4
Q
AO2- Evaluate the studies into ethnicity. (5)
A
Mumford et al- bulimia is more common among Asian schoolgirls than their white counterparts.
Striegel-Moore et al- there is a greater ‘drive for thinness’ among black girls than among white girls.
Age bias - schoolgirls
Gender bias - Girls only - ignores men
Culture bias- Australia and ethnocentric
5
Q
What study has been completed by Dornbusch about social class?
A
Dornbusch et al - surveyed 7000 American adolescents and found that higher class females had a greater desire to be thin= more likely to diet.
6
Q
AO2- What is wrong with Dornbusch et al’s study? (5)
A
Storey et al- higher class American students were more likely to have body satisfaction and less likely to diet.
Age bias- students
Gender bias - looks mainly at women
Ethnocentric bias- American
Other studies have found no relationship between social class and weight
7
Q
AO2/3- What did Rozin et al find about cultural differences?
A
They surveyed adults and college students in Belgium, France, USA and Japan about their belief of diet-health link, consumption of healthy foods and satisfaction with their own body. They found that in all areas, except from importance of diet for help, there were significant cultural differences. Plus, women were more like than men to eat for health not pleasure.
8
Q
AO2/3- What did Wardle et al find about cultural differences?
A
They surveyed 16000 young adults across 21 European countries and found that the number of people eating a basic healthy diet was low with females doing better than males. There were differences between cultures.
9
Q
AO2/3- What did Leshem find about cultural differences?
A
He compared desert Bedouin women to urban Bedouin women and found that they had very similar diets and that both were very different to Jewish women.
10
Q
When Steptoe et al carried out a large scale survey to test if health concerns affect attitudes to health, what other factors did he find influence food choices?
A
Sensory appeal Price Convenience of purchasing and prep Weight control Familiarity Mood regulation Natural content of food Ethical concerns
11
Q
What did Ogden find about health concerns and diet?
A
Due to the increase in obesity in the Western world, many adults are altering their attitudes to food and changing those of their children.
This may lead to mothers who are dissatisfied with their bodies passing on their concerns to their daughters.
12
Q
AO2- What is wrong with Ogden’s study about health concerns and diet?
A
It focuses on the diet of mothers and daughters which may mean eating behaviour are due to gender or genetic instead of health concerns.
13
Q
What did Verplanken et al find about mood and eating behaviour?
A
They found a correlation between low self-esteem, impulse buying and snack consumption. This may be a way of coping with the emotional distress it causes.
14
Q
What is the emotionality theory of obesity proposed by Scacter? (mood)
Who is this supported by?
A
People who become obese eat for emotion reasons while thin people eat for hunger.
Brusch suggests that both hyperphagia (over-eating) and hypophagia (under-eating) are ways of managing emotions.
15
Q
What is the masking hypothesis by Ogdem? (mood)
A
Change in appetite can be a symptom of mood disorder or depression which is masked by a temporary heightened mood induced by eating.
16
Q
What did Stone and Brownell find about stress and eating behaviour?
What are the possible problems?
A
They carried out a longitudinal study of 158 students for 84 days and found that stress caused them to eat less.
There may have been attrition.
Can’t generalise outside of students.
17
Q
What is the carbohydrate-craving syndrome? (mood)
A
Some people experience an irresistible desire for carbs when stressed - they trigger an improvement in mood and contain an amino acid which is the building-block for serotonin.
18
Q
How did Corsica and Spring test the carbohydrate-craving symptom? (mood)
A
They carried out a double-blind, placebo controlled trial of 21 overweight women who craved carbs. They found carbohydrate drinks had a higher ‘anti-depressant’ effect.
19
Q
AO2-Evaluate the Corsica and Spring study.
A
+ Avoids demand characteristics
- Gender bias > can’t generalise
- Small sample - only overweight women
- Low ecological validity >lab experiment
20
Q
How are mood and binge-eating related?
(1- Bulimia)
(2-Wegner)
A
Research has shown that many bulimics feel anxious pre-binge and display more a more negative mood pre-binge than before a snack or meal.
Wegner - had students record eating patterns and mood for 2 weeks and found that binging is characterised more by a low mood than normal eating > trying to alleviate low mood.
21
Q
AO2- What is wrong with the binge-eating study? (mood)
A
Many studies have found that people have a drop in mood after binging. Therefore it is unclear why people continue to binge when the reward is fleeting.
22
Q
What is comfort eating? (mood)
A
Where people eat junk food to alleviate a negative mood.
23
Q
AO2- What is wrong with using comfort eating as an explanation for the relationship between mood and eating behaviour?
A
Chocolate is seen as the ultimate comfort food due to claims that it is an anti-depressant. However, Parker et al found that eating chocolate as an emotional eating strategy actually prolongs a bad mood.
24
Q
AO2- What experiment was carried out by Garg-et al? (mood)
What did they find?
What does this suggest?
A
They split 38 participants into 2 groups; one group watched a sad film and the other watched a happy film. Both group were offered popcorn and grapes.
They found that people watching a sad film ate 36% more popcorn while the people watching the happy film ate far more grapes.
This suggests that happy people eat healthy food to prolong their good mood, while sad people eat junk food for a sudden jolt of euphoria.
25
AO2/AO3- What is the problem with gender bias in studying mood and eating behaviour?
The studies focus mainly on women, yet Seiver et al found that homosexual men are more likely to have an eating disorder due to male gay subculture and emphasis on the lean, muscular body ideal.
26
AO2/AO3- What is the problem with generalisability in studying mood and eating behaviour?
The studies look at clinical, non-clinical and sub-clinical populations but it is not possible to generalise from one group to another.
27
What are the five reasons that Ogden suggests for females wanting to lose weight?
Media influence, family, ethnicity, social class and peer groups and social learning.
28
What is the pre-load/taste test?
This is where participants are given a food pre-load, which is high in calories, and then given a taste test. The researchers measure the amount food that is eaten in a given time without telling the participants. While some early studies found that restrained eaters feel full after the pre-load and less in the taste test, other studies, such as Herman and Mack found the opposite.
29
What is the Restraint Theory/ Boundary Model, developed by Herman and Mack? (Failure of dieting)
Restrained eaters create an unrealistic cognitive boundary which is difficult for them to stick to. Therefore, they are unlikely to keep to their diet and also more likely to overeat once they pass the boundary('what the heck' effect)
30
AO2- What support is there for the Boundary Model?
Wardle et al- Overeating is caused by attempts to diet.
| Failed attempts to diet leave obese individuals feeling depressed, like a failure and unable to control their diet.
31
AO2- What are the limitations of the Boundary Model?
- The finds are a correlation so the cause is unclear > overeating may cause food restraint.
- Ogden -Overeating may be a consequence of obesity.
- Ogden- The Restraint model does not explain how anorexics manage to starve themselves if restraint leads to overeating.
32
What is the Detail Model by Redden? (Success of dieting)
Eating the same food all the time is boring- focusing on the details of a meal will make meals more interesting and help diet to succeed.
33
AO2- What support is there for the Detail model?
Redden- 135 participants were split into 2 groups and given 22 jelly beans each (1 at a time). Information about each was displayed on a computer screen. 1 group saw general information while the other saw specific flavour details. Redden found that the participant who saw general info got bored with eating while the others enjoyed it more.
34
AO2- What are the problems with the jelly bean study by Redden?
- Is a lab experiment > lacks ecological validy
- Lacks internal validity > demand characteristics
- Small sample size and small amount of food
- No difference between dieters and non-dieters
35
AO2- General evaluation for the 'explanations for the success or failure of dieting'. (3)
* Free will vs determinism - weight is affected by genetic mechanisms - too much LPL = store more calories and gain weight easily
- Kern et al- 9ps lost 10 pounds and had LPL levels measured before and after - LPL levels rose after weight loss (Is body trying to regain weight?)
* Cultural differences - Some cultures have natural inclination to obesity -Asian adults more prone to obesity than European adults
- Misra - Fat mass greater in Asian children and ados than Europeans and other ethnic groups
* Anti-dieting programmes -Emphasis on hunger regulation and satiety signals over dieting
36
What is the role of insulin and glycagon in controlling eating and satiation?
What happens if insulin levels are too low?
They are important in maintaining homoeostasis. Insulin regulates blood glucose levels by allowing glucose to enter the bloodstream. It also converts glucose to glycogen which is then stored as energy reserves.
Glucose levels become too high which can result in confusion, loss of consciousness and blindness.
37
What experiment did Washburn complete to test Cannon's theory that hunger signals originate in the stomach?
He swallowed a balloon which was attached to a tube. He then inflated it to create a sensation of fullness. He found that this stopped him from feeling hungry and concluded that the presence/absence of food in the stomach sends a signal to the brain's mechanism of feeding.
38
AO2- What evidence contradicts Washburn's findings?
People who have had their stomach removed for medical reasons still feel hungry > Must be more mechanisms and factors involved in eating and satiation.
39
What did Hetherington and Ranson find is the role of the Ventro-Medial Hypothalamus in controlling eating and satiation?
It is the satiety centre - When rats had lesions in their VHM, they overate and became obese > VHM controls satiation - without it, the rats did not know that they were full.
40
What did Anald and Brobeck find is the role of the Lateral Hypothalamus in controlling eating and satiation?
It is the feeding centre - When rats had lesions in their LH, they experienced aphagia > LH controls eating - can't eat without it.
41
What is the dual centre model of feeding?
When we feel hungry, feeding begins which causes glucose to increase and ghrelin to decrease. The change in these nutrients signals to the VHM that the body is full and that feeding should stop. After a period of time, glucose levels decrease and ghrelin increases which signals to the LH that the body is hungry. The cycle starts again.
42
How are the neuropeptides, NPY and leptin, and the hypothalamus involved in controlling eating and satiation?
Why does a leptin deficiency result in an inability to control eating?
NPY (chemical messenger found in fat deposits around the body and brain) - 'Switches on' eating.
Leptin (neuropeptide secreted from fat cells in the blood) - signals to the hypothalamus that calorie storage is high.
The hypothalamus interprets low levels of leptin as a lack of calories, causing feelings of hunger to occur more often.
43
AO2- What study supports the role of ghrelin in controlling eating and satiation?
Cummings et al- investigated how changes in blood ghrelin levels affect appetite.
Monitor blood ghrelin levels of 6 participants after lunch using catheter every 5 minutes and assessed degree of hunger every 30 minutes.
Found that ghrelin levels fell after lunch then gradually rose until participants asked for evening meal > ghrelin plays important role in regulating appetite.
44
AO2- What evaluation is there for Cummings et al's study into ghrelin? (4)
+ supports previous findings about ghrelin = reliable
+ participants were isolated from time and context cues = no extraneous variables - request for food is based on ghrelin levels
-correlation - no cause and effect
- small sample size & all male - can't generalise
45
AO2/AO3- Why do the explanations of neural mechanisms in controlling eating and satiation have biological determinism? (4)
They focus on the role of nature and ignore social and cultural influences that affect eating behaviour.
Pinel: In the west, the digestive system starts preparing itself by releasing saliva and enzymes before meal time (learned response).
No free will.
Physiological drives can be overridden - must be other factors.
46
AO2/AO3- Why do the explanations of neural mechanisms in controlling eating and satiation lack validity? (2)
Use of animals - can't generalise to humans; do not have same external cues, e.g. schedule and cultural & social influences.
Lab experiments - lacks ecological validity; can't generalise
47
AO2/AO3- Why are the explanations of neural mechanisms in controlling eating and satiation biologically reductionist? (2)
Overly simplistic- explain complex behaviours using only neural mechanisms
Ignores the input of cognitive and behavioural approaches e.g ignores classical conditioning (Pinel's study)
48
AO2/AO3- Real world applications of neural mechanisms in controlling eating and satiation?
Knowledge of neural mechanisms can be used to treat people with eating problems.
49
Name three evolutionary explanations of food preference.
The environment of evolutionary adaptation (EEA), early diets and taste aversion.
50
Outline the environment of evolutionary adaptation (EEA) evolutionary explanation for food preferences.
Our current food preferences are based on the tastes that humans had when they first evolved 2million years ago - passed on through natural selection which favours adaptations which aid survival - become innate.
51
Outline the early diets evolutionary explanation for food preferences.
We have a preference for calorific foods as this would have been vital for survival in the EEA.
52
Outline the taste aversion evolutionary explanation for food preferences.
```
Bait shyness - many species instinctively avoid foods that may harm their survival
> Rats only take small amounts of food to test if it's safe - avoid the food if they become ill
Medicine effect (Garcia)- eat foods that will aid survival
>If a rat is deficient in a certain nutrient, they will eat foods rich in it
```
53
AO2- What support is there for the EEA? (2)
Gibson and Wardle - children choose food that is rich in calories e.g. potatoes and bananas; shows evolved preference for food that would enable survival in a hunter-gatherer society where much energy is needed.
Craig-Stanford - observed chimps in Tanzania who live in similar conditions to our ancestors. After near starvation, they choose the fattiest parts of their kill; our desire to eat fatty foods would have been necessary in the EEA.
54
AO2- What support is there for Taste Aversion?
Bernstein and Webster- carry out food aversion tests on cancer patients - give them a novel food and a familiar food prior to chemotherapy. They developed an aversion to the novel food but not the familiar food - evolutionary need to avoid new foods which may be dangerous.
55
AO2- What evidence is provided by Cordean which suggests evolutionary explanations of food preferences may be wrong?
Early humans were vegetarians - humans consumed most of their calories from natural sources which were more readily available.
This contradicts the EEA and does not explain our current food preferences for foods that are high in fat and sugar.
But is not falsifiable.
56
AO2- Why do cultural difference in eating behaviour contradict the evolutionary explanations of food preferences? (4)
There is a wide range of food preferences and likes and dislikes beyond infancy.
Unlikely to occur if evolutionary explanation was valid - would have the same adaptive eating habits for survival.
Plus inappropriate eating habits would have removed our in-built preferences - would not have a universal preferences of fats and sugars.
>Preferences must be influenced by social and cognitive factors too.
57
AO2- Why are the evolutionary explanations of food preferences deterministic? (3)
Food preferences are due to the environment and genetic adaptations - have no control over them = no free will.
Ignores cognitive factors that affect food preferences e.g mood.
Ignores behavioural factors that affect food preferences e.g social learning theory.
58
AO2- Why are the evolutionary explanations of food preferences reductionist? (3)
Attempts to explain complex eating behaviours in overly simplistic terms - basing them on people who have been dead for thousands of years.
Not falsifiable - can't prove current preferences are related to our ancestors'.
Ignores more current factors - mood, health and culture.
59
AO2- What is wrong with using animals in studying evolutionary explanations of food preferences? (2)
Not possible to generalise from animals to humans -more complex organisms; more factors influence eating.
Food is more widely available to humans - changes eating habits.
60
According to the behavioural model, what causes eating disorders?
What are the three types of conditioning and how does each lead to EDs?
A learned emotional and behavioural response to food, eating and the body.
Classical conditioning= learned association between eating and anxiety
Operant conditioning = positive reinforcement - compliments from others after losing weight
negative reinforcement - avoid bullying by losing weight
Social learning = observation of thin models being admired/ successful - want same response
observation of overweight people being punished - want to avoid this
61
What did Keel and Klump suggest is a behavioural reason for Anorexia Nervosa?
Cross-cultural study - AN is not a culture-bound disorder but the frequency of incidences is proportional to the degree of influence; the more westernised the society, the more AN is found.
62
What did Striegel-Moore and Bulik suggest is a behavioural reason for Anorexic Nervosa?
Media images of models have become taller and slimmer over last 50 years.
This creates tension between the real self and the ideal self -causes body dissatisfaction, which leads to dieting and obsession with food.
In vulnerable girls, this can lead to a fully-fledged eating disorder.
63
AO2- What study supports the findings of Striegel-Moore and Bulik? (Behavioural model -AN)
Groesz, Levene and Murnen- completed meta review of 25 studies -body dissatisfaction significantly increased after exposure to media images of thin women. This was worse in those with most body dissatisfaction before exposure.
64
AO2/AO3- What are some problems with the behavioural explanation of Anorexia Nervosa? (3)
Why don't all dieters become anorexic?
Why do anorexics continue to starve themselves after they no longer receive compliments? - What is the reinforcement? (May be the attention)
What reward do bulimics get from bingeing?
65
AO2/AO3- What ethics issues are there in research into AN? (Behavioural model-AN)
Research is taken from websites, chat rooms and blogs - issues with privacy, informed consent and confidentiality.
66
AO2/AO3- What are the real world applications of the behavioural explanation of AN?
The French fashion industry is now encouraging a wide-range of body types to reduce the damaging influence of the media.
67
AO2/AO3- How is perfectionism related to Anorexia Nervosa? (Behavioural explanation of AN)
Individuals with a history of AN tend to score higher on the perfectionism scale.
Perfectionism runs in families- may have a genetic vulnerability.
68
AO2-AO3- Why is there a cultural bias in behavioural studies into AN?
The studies are ethnocentric- they are mainly Western.
69
According to the cognitive model, what causes AN?
Faulty or maladaptive thought processes, misperception of the body and faulty reasoning about the body and food.
70
Give examples of faulty thinking in eating disorders.
Misperceive the body as overweight when it is underweight, basing self-worth on appearance and basing sense of self on control over eating.
71
Give examples of cognitive errors in eating disorders.
All or nothing thinking, overgeneralising, minimising/magnifying and magical thinking.
72
What did McKenzie er al find about female ED patients which supports the cognitive model? (3)
What is wrong with this? (1)
They overestimated their own body size compared to other women.
They judged their ideal weight to be lower than that of non-ED patients.
They believed that their weight had increased following a sugary snack while controls did not.
- The study is gender biased.
73
What did Fallon and Rozin do to test the cognitive explanation of eating disorders?
What did they find? (3)
Male and female students had to rate themselves on their current and ideal body weight.
Females more likely to rate themselves as heavier than was attractive and much heavier than their ideal.
Women are generally more dissatisfied than men.
In ED patients, minor events related to eating and activates fear of weight gain.
74
AO2- What are the problems with Fallon and Rozin's study of cognitive explanations of eating disorders? (4)
- Age bias -students- and alpha bias - females- and -ethnocentric- can't generalise.
- Method = rating - may give socially desirable answers
- Lab experiment - demand characteristics
- Not all women develop EDs
75
AO2/AO3- Evaluations of the cognitive model in explaining eating disorders. (3)
+AN is associated with biases and distortions
- Not all women who are dissatisfied with their bodies develop EDs
- Accounts do not show what causes the disorder - why do the have maladaptive thoughts?
76
AO3- I/D/A of the cognitive model in explaining eating disorders. (6)
-Ignores finding from other approaches e.g. biological and behavioural.
+Nature vs Nurture- is in middle.
+/- Free will vs determinism - free will; can change and use of CBT. But blames the individual.
-Reductionist - reduces complex behaviours to overly simplistic explanation.
Issues - gender bias, culture bias and sensitivity.
77
How does the psycho-dynamic model explain eating disorders?
They are a manifestation of repressed emotional problems.
| The symptoms of EDs symbolise repressed conflicts and motives in the unconscious mind.
78
How does the psycho-dynamic model explain AN?
Anorexics become fixated at the oral stage when they are still dependent on their paretns.
They lose weight because they do not want to grow up and wish to remain asexual.
A refusal to eat represents a refusal of sexuality.
79
What study did Wonderlick et al complete to look at sexual experiences during childhood and eating disorders?
They completed a survey of 1099 US women.
| They found that women with a history of sexual abuse had an elevated risk of developing an eating disorders.
80
AO2/AO3- What is wrong with Wonderlick et al's study? (psycho-dynamic model of EDs) (2)
It is a correlation- can't show cause and effect.
| It is retrospective - people may misremember .
81
AO2/AO3- What are the general criticisms of the psycho-dynamic explanations of eating disorders? (5)
-The studies look at women who have been abused in childhood - not representative of all women
-Not all abuse survivors develop an ED
-Not all ED patients have been abused - must be other factors
-Many aspects are difficult to test - not falsifiable
+Has some support
82
AO2/AO3- I/D/A of the psycho-dynamic explanation of eating disorders. (5)
Nature vs nurture - can't control unconscious
Free will vs determinism- deterministic; can't change the unconscious mind BUT there are therapies
Alpha bias- exaggerates gender differences
Ethnocentric bias
Case studies - can't generalise
83
What did Bruch claim is the reason for developing AN? (psycho-dynamic model)
Ineffective parents who are unable to respond to their child's needs e.g feeding a child when it is actually anxious and vise-versa.
Causes child to become overly reliant on parents. Leads them to feel that they are not in control of their body so they become obsessive over body shape and size and develop abnormal eating behaviours.
84
AO2/AO3- Evaluation of Bruch's psycho-dynamic explanation. (3)
+Steiner et al - observation: parents with children with AN have a tendency to define their child's physical needs.
+Bruch- parents claim that they can anticipate their child's hunger and don't allow them to feel hungry.
+Burton & Warren- AN sufferers rely excessively on the opinions of others, worry about how they are viewed and feel a lack of control over their lives.
85
What are the two biological explanations of eating disorders?
Evolutionary explanation and the neural explanation
86
What does the evolutionary explanation of AN suggest causes the disorder?
The reproductive suppression hypothesis and the 'adapted to flee' hypothesis.
87
What is the reproductive suppression hypothesis?
Surbey- Desire to control weight is an evolutionary adaptation which allowed ancestral girls to delay sexual maturation in response to cues about the probability of poor reproductive success - will not give birth until conditions are better for offspring's survival.
> Now females alter timing of reproduction when they feel unable to cope with biological, emotional and social responsibilities of womanhood.
88
What is the 'adapted to flee' hypothesis? (AFFH)
Guisinger- Symptoms of AN (food restriction, hyperactivity and denial of starvation) reflect adaptive mechanisms which allowed migration to occur. In ancestral nomadic forages, during times of extreme weight loss and food depletion, the physiological mechanism that causes people to conserve their energy and increases their desire for food was turned off to increase their chances of survival by migrating to a more favourable environment. Therefore, modern day individuals who lose too much weight may trigger these ancestral mechanisms.
89
AO2- What support is there for the reproduction suppression hypothesis? (1)
Reproduction is suspended in anorexic females as amenorrhea is triggered by AN - supports idea that AN is an adaptive mechanism to delay reproduction.
90
AO2- What treatment implications are there of the 'adapted to flee' hypothesis?
Guisinger- The AFFH helps to explain why there is a struggle between family and friends (who are worried and want to help the sufferer) and the anorexic (who has a poweful biological urge to avoid food and to exercise.
This can then lead to more effective treatment in which the therapist can be more compassionate.
91
AO2- What are the problems associated with evolutionary explanations? (2)
How are the symptoms of AN passed on through natural selection when AN decreases fertility and can even kill the sufferer?
AN was more effective in ancestral conditions - it is no longer adaptive.
92
AO2- What the treatment implications of the evolutionary explanation?(3)
+Bulik: can use an individual's genetic profile to indicate their level of risk and to develop specially tailored prevention programmes for people vulnerable to the disorder.
+Reduces the blame to the individual and their family by showing people that AN may be due to dysfunctional biology
+Treatments such as drugs to normalise neurotransmitter levels and gene-replacement therapy
93
AO2- Why does the evolutionary explanation of AN have a gender bias?
Most of the studies concentrate on women despite the fact that statistics show that 25% of adults with EDs are male.
94
What are the two neural explanations of AN? (+4 subsections)
Neurotransmitters - serotonin and dopamine.
| Neurodevelopment- pregnancy and birth complications, and season of birth.
95
What did Bailer et al do test the role of serotonin in causing AN?
What did they find? (3)
They compared the serotonin activity in women recovering from restricting type AN and binge/purging type AN to healthy control groups.
Serotonin levels were highest in women recovering from
binge/purging type AN.
Serotonin levels were highest in women who had shown a lot of anxiety - disrupted serotonin levels may lead to an increase in anxiety which then triggers AN.
There is a link between serotonin levels and the development of AN.
96
AO2- Evaluate the study by Bailer et al into the role of serotonin in causing AN. (3)
- SSRIs, which alter the levels of brain serotonin, are ineffective when used in AN patients; other factors may cause AN
+ Kaye et al: SSRIs are effective in preventing relapse when used on recovering AN patients > link between setonin levels and AN (SSRIs may only work when weight has returned to normal levels)
-Cause or effect?
97
What did Kaye et al do to test the role of dopamine in causing AN?
What did they find?
* They used a PET scan to compare the dopamine levels of 10 women recovering from AN and 12 healthy women.
* AN sufferers have over active dopamine receptors in the basal ganglia, where dopamine plays a part in the interpretation of pleasure and harm.
* Increase levels of dopamine appear to alter the way in which people interpret rewards; AN sufferers find it difficult to associate good feelings with food.
98
AO2- Evaluate the Kaye et al study in the role of dopamine in causing AN. (4)
+Catro-Fornieles et al: adolescent girls with AN had higher levels of homovanillic acid (a waste product of dopamine) than the control group > high levels of dopamine levels may lead to AN
+Wang et al: lower than normal dopamine levels in the brain exist in obese individuals >dopamine levels affect weight
-Are dopamine levels the cause or effect?
99
What did Lindberg and Hjern find about the role of pregnancy and birth complications in the development of AN?
What are the 2 possible causes?
What did Bulik et al suggest is the reason for one of the causes?
There is a significant association between premature birth and the development of AN.
*Hypoxia (lack of oxygen) during birth may cause brain damage and impair the neurodevelopment of the child.
*May have inadequate nutrition during pregnancy if their mother has AN
>Bulik et al: mothers with AN expose their child to a 'double disadvantage' of a genetic vulnerability and lack of nutrition during pregnancy
100
AO2- Evaluate the pregnancy and birth complications in the development of AN. (2)
+ Support from other studies, e.g a birth study which followed a group of children from birth to adulthood
+ Favaro et al: some perinatal complications, such as obstructed blood supply to the placenta, early eating difficulties and low birth weight are significantly associated with risk developing AN.
101
What did Eagles et al find about the role of the season of birth in the development of AN?
Individuals with AN were more likely to be born during the spring as intrauterine affections during pregnancy and the temperature at the time of conception affect the development of the baby.
102
What did Willoughby et al find about the role of the season of birth in the development of AN?
Sufferers of AN in equatorial regions are not affected by this as it is constantly hot.
103
AO2- Evaluate the role of the season of birth in the development of AN. (3)
+ Support from Eagles et al's study into family composition - anorexic individuals tend to be later in birth order than healthy individuals
+The more elder siblings as baby has while in the womb, the more likely the mother is to develop an infection which will be passed on to the unborn child
+Brain development occurs during 2nd trimester - child born in sprin more likely to face infection as this is in Spring
104
AO2- What are the general evaluation points of the biological explanation of AN? (6)
+AN could be due to genes - higher concordance rates in MZ twins than DZ twins
- nature over nurture - ignores social and environmental factors and family set up
- deterministic - can't change genes
BUT + takes away blame from individual
-biological reductionism- overly simplistic
-gender bias - looks mainly at females
