EATING BEHAVIOUR- anorexia nervosa (biological)

Question 1

2 biological evo exp?

Answer 1

AFFH

EEA

Question 2

what doe affh stand for?

Answer 2

adapted to flee” hypothesis

Question 3

who thought of affh?

Answer 3

Guisinger’s

Question 4

what type of exp is affh?

Answer 4

evolutionary exp

Question 5

what does affh suggest?

Answer 5

suggests AN is a symptom of behaviours which were adaptive within the environment of evolutionary
adaptation (EEA)

Question 6

what was withing eea?

Answer 6

there would have been prolonged periods of
famine causing food restriction requiring hunter-gatherers to migrate in response. Therefore AN would have evolved to help people cope and respond with such environmental
changes

Question 7

what would this explain?

Answer 7

why many AN sufferers report hyperactivity despite

lack of energy

Question 8

what happen those who were able to move greater amount of food?

Answer 8

Within the EEA those who were able to move to
areas of greater food availability were most
likely to survive and this hyperactivity and
denial of starvation would aid in this.

Question 9

what happens under normal circumstances?

Answer 9

when people begin to lose weight biological mechanisms

would begin conserving energy while increasing hunger

Question 10

what happens in times of famine?

Answer 10

however in times of famine or scarce food supply another

mechanism is required to aid survival by turning these biological mechanisms off.

Question 11

how is an explained by gusinger?

Answer 11

Guisinger as she states being able to turn off hunger
and provide energy (hyperactivity) in times
of need is advantageous for survival to respond
to such environmental pressures.

Question 12

what is another explanation?

Answer 12

Neurotransmitter Explanation

Question 13

what does the Neurotransmitter Explanation suggest?

Answer 13

AN may have a physical cause through

neurotransmitter imbalances

Question 14

who supported Neurotransmitter Explanation ?

Answer 14

Bailer et al

Question 15

what did bailer et al do?

Answer 15

examined serotonin disturbances betweenindividuals with AN and bingeeating/purge type behaviours and compared
them with a healthy control group

Question 16

what was apparent in an sufferes (bailer et al)?

Answer 16

highest serotonin activity was apparent within AN sufferers and this is believed to suppress appetite and increase anxiety which are characteristics of AN.

Question 17

what explained an with bailer et al?

Answer 17

Therefore higher than normal levels of serotonin activity

may trigger anxiety and explain AN

Question 18

another biological exp looking into neurotrans?

Answer 18

dopamine overactivity.-kaye et al

Question 19

what did kaye et al do?

Answer 19

compared 10 recovering AN sufferers to 12 healthy women using pet scans to measure dopamine activity within
the brain.

Question 20

what was found in kay et al?

Answer 20

AN women were found tohave overactivity within their dopamine 27 receptors within the basal ganglia which is
associated with interpreting pleasure and harm.

Question 21

what may this part of brain affect?

Answer 21

This part of the brain may affect the way people interpret rewards or pleasurable activities such as food and eating.

Question 22

what does higher than normal dopamine levels explain for an?

Answer 22

higher than normal dopamine levels may explain AN as sufferers find it difficult to associate positive feelings with
pleasurable acts such as the consumption of food.

Question 23

evals of bio points?

Answer 23

gusinger at al
weakness for neurotransmitters
methodological problems
reductionist
offer treatment

Question 24

why guisnger et al?

Answer 24

reliant on post-hoc evidence and drawing conclusions from behavior observed after its happened. Therefore this
raises methodological problems as it is incredibly difficult to test scientifically to prove or disprove.

Question 25

why weakness for neurotransmitters?

Answer 25

they are based on correlational findings where we cannot infer cause and effect for certain.Serotonin or Dopamine increase may in fact be a symptom of AN rather than a cause and such explanations and studies lack internal validity as we cannot conclusively say either neurotransmitter is the cause for certain but merely present in individuals with AN- e.g Bailer et als study the women were already recovering from AN and its impossible to establish whether any serotonin imbalance observed was the cause of AN or a symptom.

Question 26

why methodological problems?

Answer 26

Kaye et als study into dopamine suffers from methodological problems such as gender bias and the fact that it was a small sample. The study focused only on women and we cannot say for certain imbalances in dopamine would be the same for men with AN.

Question 27

why offer treatment ?

Answer 27

through drug therapies to bring neurotransmitter levels into balance or even gene replacement therapy opening up possible routes for treating the disorder. Research into biological causes also has real world applications especially in the world of insurance cover for psychiatric conditions.