Eating behaviour

Question 1

What are the 3 evolutionary explanations for food preference?

Answer 1

Early diets
Taste aversion
Neophobia

Question 2

Explain our preference for high calorie foods in evolutionary terms

Answer 2

We needed to sustain energy in case we didn’t find another meal in the EEA

Question 3

What is the EEA?

Answer 3

Environment of evolutionary adaptation

Question 4

Explain our preference for meat using a case study in evolutionary terms

Answer 4

Milton (2008)

Meat helps brain development and without the nutrients our brains would never have developed t

Question 5

Explain our preference for sweet foods

Answer 5

Sweet tasting food in EEA gave us minerals, vitamins and energy which promote growth
In things such as fruit

Question 6

What did Bell et al (1973) find about preferences to sweet foods?

Answer 6

Early exposure to sweet food isn’t necessary to prefer it
In cultures that haven’t been exposed to sweet foods before didn’t reject it
Therefore its evolutionary not learned as they hadn’t got used to the foods beforehand

Question 7

What did Grill and Norgen (1978) find about preferences to sweet foods?

Answer 7

Preference for sweet food is innate

Babies when given sweet food for first time smile and giggle and lick lips = innate response

Question 8

Who developed the theory of taste aversion?

Answer 8

Garcia et al (1955)

Question 9

What did Garcia at el do and find?

Answer 9

Experiment with rats
Give them tablets of poison
Rats taste tiny amount , tastes bitter = poison= avoid
Some rats get ill and never try again
Findings: natural avoidance for bitter foods as associated with poison and danger = promote survival in EEA

Question 10

What real world application is there for taste aversion?

Answer 10

Bernstein and Webster (
Chemo patients usually develop an aversion to foods they eat prior to treatment
He gave them a necessary food and a novel one before treatment and the patient developed an aversion to the novel food rather than the usual one
= conditioned response

Question 11

What do i mean by the ‘adaptive advantages of taste aversion’?

Answer 11

Taste and odour of certain foods linked to illness = development of a food aversion
Linked to ancestors bc if they were lucky enough to survive eating poisoned food, they would never do it again

Question 12

What is neophobia?

Answer 12

The fear of trying new foods which protects us from consuming something harmful

Question 13

Describe and explain neophobia in humans

Answer 13

Reluctance is based on culture and current diet
We have expectations of how food should look and smell based on what were used to so unfamiliar foods don’t fall into these categories so will reject them

Question 14

Describe what A01 research demonstrates the role of parents as a social influence on food preferences?

Answer 14

Brown and Ogden (2004)
There was a consistent positive correlation between parents and children’s snack food intake , eating motivation and body dissatisfaction

Question 15

What are the two social influences for learning food preferences?

Answer 15

Parents and peers

Question 16

Describe what A01 research demonstrates the role of peers as a social influence on food preferences

Answer 16

Greenhalgh (2009)
He observed children observing positive modelling - peers eating new foods- and found it encouraged them to try the food themselves
Negative modelling - refusing to eat new foods- inhibited the consumption of new foods

Question 17

What did Greenhalgh (2009) find?

Answer 17

Observing others impacts out attitudes and behaviour towards food

Question 18

How can modelling have an effect on food preference?

Answer 18

Positive e.g. observe model eating novel food = try new foods themselves
Negative e.g. observe model refusing to eat = don’t try novel food

Question 19

What are the different types of cultural influence on food preference?

Answer 19

Media

Context of meals

Question 20

What is meant by the context of meals ?

Answer 20

The atmosphere, the room you’re eating in, what you’re eating

Question 21

Describe A01 research that demonstrates the role of media on food preference

Answer 21

Macintyre (1998)

People learn from the media - fat kids are more likely to watch tv and want to eat the crap they see on tv .

Question 22

What did Macintyre (1998) find?

Answer 22

Media has a major impact of what we eat and attitudes to certain foods

Question 23

How does personal circumstance affect eating preference?

Answer 23

Behaviours are limited by circumstance e.g age, income, availability
E.g. low income eat cheap unhealthy foods

Question 24

Describe what A01 research has shown about the context of meals in food preference

Answer 24

Magurie (2015)
people increasingly graze instead of having meals = small snacks throughout day = eat more snack food than proper meals
People in areas of deprivation eat the most takeaway’s

Question 25

By what % has the number of takeaways ordered in deprived areas increased?

Answer 25

40%

Question 26

What is a limitation of the research done into the role of social influences in food preference ?
A03

Answer 26

The research is limited and studies has only been small scale with a selected sample of white Americans = cant generalise

Question 27

Describe what study involving 800 children found when investigated the role of parents as a social influence on food preference
Strength or limitation?
A03

Answer 27

Robinson (2001)
800 8-9 year olds from different backgrounds
found there was a complex association between parents behaviour and childs preferences
Girls were more influenced by parents than kids
Limitation

Question 28

What research investigated the effectiveness of parental influence in food preference? Strength or weakness? A03

Answer 28

Russell (2015)
Interviewed parents of 2-5 yr olds about methods used to influence food preference
Found not all methods successful
Parent modelling and food exposure effective when promoting healthy eating
Forcing food and restricting food is less effective

Question 29

Describe what research is there on media influences on food preference? A03

Answer 29

Boyland and Halford (2013)
Exposure to food advertising on TV influences food preference and intake
Different weight children respond differently to adverts for food high in fat, sugar and salt = more appealing to fat kids

Question 30

How do different weight children respond differently to TV adverts?
A03

Answer 30

Ad’s with food high in fat, sugar and salt appeal to overweight children

Question 31

What did Boyland and Halford find about the amount of TV watched by children with certain food preferences?
A03

Answer 31

Children who had greatest preference for high fat and carb foods were the ones who watched the most TV

Question 32

Describe a real world application of the implications of media influences on food preference? And who investigated it
A03

Answer 32

Cains et al (2013)
Developing countries regulate TV adverts with unhealthy food and focus on limiting the exposure of unhealthy food on children to reduce the negative effects on children

Question 33

What did Cains et al (2013) find about TV and food preference?
A03

Answer 33

Cains (2013)
TV is the dominant medium for children’s exposure to food marketing
The majority of food marketing is on unhealthy food

Question 34

Describe the study into the food environment influencing food preference and what it found
A03

Answer 34

Chen and Yang (2013)
Studied twitter feeds and analyse food shopping in high quality grocery stored and fast food outlets
Found a significant link between the number of healthy shops around the area and the images of healthy food being consumed on twitter feeds

Question 35

What does the study by Chen and Yang suggest about food preference?

Answer 35

People are influenced by ease of access to healthy food and can resit unhealthy food if healthy option is available