Eating behaviour Flashcards
What are the two theories behind cultural food preferences in explaining attitudes to food and eating behaviour?
SLT
Mere exposure effect
Describe social learning theory to explain attitudes to food and eating behaviour
Most of our role models when we are young come from the same culture as ourselves. This may mean we adopt the food preferences through observation and imitation of our role models eating the foods linked to our culture.
Furthermore, children are often positively reinforced for eating the foods their culture deems desirable (being allowed dessert after eating vegetables.) Punishment is likely to occur if they eat something deemed inappropriate e.g eating a spider whereas in many South American/ South East Asian countries it is perfectly normal. This process is entirely dependent on culture.
Describe the mere exposure effect to explain attitudes to food and eating behaviour
We begin to like food by being exposed to it more often. Different countries have foods that are more common than others e.g. pasta in Italy. The theory argues that being around these foods is enough to make you like them and when given a choice between a familiar and unfamiliar food you’d choose the familiar. This explains how different cultures end up preferring different foods. This effect is most marked by children who show a neophobic response to unfamiliar food. It also seems to be true that the number of exposures needed to accept a new food decreases with every new food added.
What are your evaluation points for cultural explanations to eating behaviour?
Birch and Marlin Williams et al Birch et al Lowe et al Deterministic Nurture side of the nature nurture debate
Evaluate evolutionary explanations to eating behaviour in terms of issues and debates
Deterministic as the mere exposure effect says it’s inevitable that you will like familiar food. Many people dislike foods that they’ve tasted many times. Social learning theory suggests it’s inevitable that you will eat the foods you see your role model eat, especially if positively reinforced for doing so.
Take the nurture side of the nature nurture debate assuming that food preferences are due to the experiences we have within our culture. They ignore that some food preferences seem to be biological.
Describe Birch and Marlin’s study that supports the mere exposure effect
Used children aged 2 as their participants and introduced them to novel cheeses or fruits over 26 days. Each new food was presented 0, 5, 10, 15 or 20 times and was counterbalanced so that any preference for the food couldn’t be attributed to the taste of the food. When the children were later given a choice as to which food they like they found that they chose the more familiar food. This links to culture when we consider that some foods are encountered more frequently than others depending on where we live.
Describe Williams et al’s study that supports the mere exposure effect
6 children being treated for selective about what they ate. One of these was a 5 year old girl with autism who would only eat hot dogs, peanut butter, toast, bacon, eggs and chocolate. Shortly before her treatment she began refusing to eat all foods. To treat her they gave her a teaspoon of 3 novel foods every meal time. The first novel food took 27 exposures but the 5th novel food took less than 10 presentations before she accepted it. This is likely to be because the later foods tasted similar to the previous foods that she had already accepted. 3 months later, the girl was still eating 47 of the 49 foods.
Describe Birch et al’s study that supports SLT and mere exposure effect
They sat children next to another child at lunch who preferred a different vegetable to them (peas vs carrots) over 4 consecutive days. They found that by the end of the study the children’s preferences had shifted and remained in a follow up study several weeks later. This could be seen to support SLT of the children imitating their role model or mere exposure as they would have increased exposure to the vegetable.
Describe Lowe et al’s study which supports SLT but not mere exposure effect
Group of 5-6 year olds whose parents described as fussy eaters as they ate little fruit and vegetables. The children were exposed to one of four conditions.
1. Exposure to fruit and vegetables
2. Positive reinforcement following consumption
3. Exposure to role models (the food dudes) eating fruit and vegetables
4. Exposure to role models and positive reinforcement
Using the children’s consumption of fruit and vegetables as a measure of success they found condition 4 to be the most successful and condition 1 the least successful which provides great support for SLT but not mere exposure.
Describe how mood influences eating behaviour
There’s consistent evidence to say that carbohydrates are craved to make ourselves feel better. Tryptophan is an amino acid that is a building block for serotonin (a chemical which makes us happy. Tryptophan is found in protein rich foods which also contain other competing amino acids. Carbohydrates contain insulin which slows down the competing amino acids and allows tryptophan to work and improve mood and so when we have a low mood we are likely to view carbohydrates positively.
What are your evaluation points for the role of mood in eating behaviour?
Brinkworth et al
McClernon et al
Nature side of the nature nurture debate
Evaluate the role of mood in terms of issues and debates
Takes the nature side of the nature nurture debate by suggesting our attitudes to carbohydrates are due to biological factors. However, these could be due to environmental factors such as associating them with home or mere exposure.
Describe Brinkworth et al’s study to evaluate the influence of mood on eating behaviour
106 dieters for a year who were overweight or obese with an average age of 50. They were allocated a high fat low carb diet or a low fat high carb diet which both averaged 1500 calories a day. The type of diet didn’t affect weight loss as both averaged 30 pounds. The low carb high fat diet showed more signs of depression and anger.
Describe McClernon et al’s study to evaluate the role of mood in food behaviour
They used 119 volunteers and assigned them a low carb diet or low fat diet. They found most participants experiences positive improvements in a number of areas including lack of depression. Seems to go against the theory and suggests that carbohydrates have no impact on mood- however it could be considered that the participants in questions felt more positive due to large weight loss.
What two theories are there for the success and failure of dieting?
Restraint theories
Denial theories
Describe Herman and Polivy’s restraint theory
People who restrict their diet by skipping meals or consuming less calories are more likely to over eat when given the chance. They argue that dieters can stick to their restricted diet until they come across good. When they start to eat they need to eat more food to feel full and so often end up consuming more calories.
Describe Herman and Polivy’s boundary model part of restraint theory
The dieter is able to stick to their plan if they feel they aren’t going to break the rules of their diet. Once they feel the boundary has been crossed instead of stopping they carry on eating until they feel satisfied.
Describe Ogden and Wardle’s cognitive element of restraint theory
Giving in once the boundary has been crossed isn’t a passive process but an active act of rebellion. Dieters who binge after breaking a diet often describe their thoughts as “not caring about the diet anymore”
How does restraint theories link to diet success and failure?
A diet will fail when meals are skipped or dieters are expected to eat too few calories. A diet will be successful when a dieter is allowed to eat little and often and when daily calorie intake is reasonable.
What are your evaluation points for restraint theories?
Wardle and Beales
Herman and Mack
Deterministic
Evaluate restraint theories in terms of issues and debates
Deterministic as suggests it is inevitable that a dieter will overeat when given the opportunity or after a high calorie pre loader to do so. Many people demonstrate the will power to stick to very low calorie diets and so it is not inevitable that a restricted diet will fail.
Describe Wardle and Beales’ study to evaluate restraint theories
27 obese women given one of three conditions for a seven week period.
1. The dieting conditions (restricted eaters)
2. The exercise condition
3. The control condition
At weeks 4 and 6 participants were given a pre load (a small amount of food) and then asked to help themselves to as much other food as they would like. They found dieters are more when given this opportunity. This supports the idea that if food is restricted the chances of overeating are increased when presented with food.
Describe Herman and Mack’s study that evaluates restraint theories
Gave dieters and non dieters either high calorie preload (milkshake or chocolate) or a low calorie preload (water or a cracker.) They were asked to taste test a number of foods (for saltiness, preference, sweetness.) How much they ate of these foods was up to them. Results were consistent with the boundary model as dieters at less following a low calorie preload than non dieters but more following a high calorie preload than non dieters. The implication of this is that a diet is likely to fail if a dieter has high calorie snacks.
What is the basic idea of denial theory in explaining eating behaviour?
Works on the principle that we want what we can’t have. Dieting often involves cutting out foods. This leads to us trying to avoid thinking about said forbidden food which makes us think about it more, known as the rebound effect. Thinking about it more means we are more likely to break the diet.
What is Wegner’s two process theory? (Denial theory)
‘The theory of ironic processes of mental control’ We end up thinking about things we try not to through two processes
- Goes about setting up an acceptable state of mind- free mind from thoughts of chocolate- due to this forced process it feels like a lot of effort leading to diet failure
- Once the acceptable state of mind is set up an automatic monitoring process searches for evidence of forbidden thoughts- as this process occurs we are more likely to have those thoughts about forbidden foods.
How does denial theory and Wegner’s theory of ironic processes of mental control link with diet success and failure?
A diet will fail if it involves cutting out whole food groups or types of food. This would mean diets such as the Atkins diet which cuts out all carbs is doomed to fail.
What are your evaluation points for denial theory?
Erskine and Georgiou
Barnes and Tantleff-Dunn
Nature side of the nature nurture debate
Describe Erskine and Georgiou’s study into denial theory
116 female participants split into three groups. The first group were told not to think about chocolate, the second were to to think about chocolate and the third were allowed to think about anything they wanted to.
They were given a task to rate two brands of chocolate but were unaware that researchers were measuring how much of the chocolate they ate. They found group 1 ate significantly more than the other groups- in line with denial theory. This demonstrates thought suppression has a direct effect on behaviour.
Describe Barnes and Tantleff-Dunn’s study to evaluate denial theory
Asked 312 overweight or obese men and women a number of questions to assess their level of good thought suppression, binge eating and food cravings. They found women were more likely than men to engage in food thought suppression and that this was linked to more binge eating and greater cravings for forbidden foods. This supports the negative role of denial.
Evaluate denial theory in terms of issues and debates
Ignores the nature side of the nature nurture debate as ignores biological factors that might play a part in people giving in and eating forbidden food. It may not be true that the reason for giving in is cognitive processes it could be that the body feels deficient in certain nutrients and causes the cravings.
What are the neural mechanisms involved in controlling eating behaviour?
Dual control theory
CCK
Ghrelin
Describe dual control theory as a neural mechanism in eating behaviour
Two parts of the hypothalamus work to create a feeling of hunger and a feeling of satiety which was developed based on research on rats which involved putting a electrode directly on their brains. The electrode was used to create a lesion or stimulation on two parts. The lateral hypothalamus is believed to cause feelings of hunger. When lesioned eating decreases and when stimulated it increases.
The ventromedial hypothalamus is believed to cause feelings of satiety- when lesioned eating increases and when stimulated it decreases.
