Eating behaviour essay plans

Question 1

Factors influencing attitudes to food

Answer 1

Health concerns, education, accessibility, cultural reinforcement, special occasions, enculturation effect, other factors ranked higher, low fat milk, minority groups in poor areas, Bangladeshi women tradition and junk food, cultural bias, generalisation issue some studies on eating disorders some not, practical application of diet plans

Question 2

Success and failure of dieting

Answer 2

only 20% succeed 87% try, restraint theory, pre load, 3 groups, pre-occupied with forbidden food, cant explain success, few studies have relevance to real life, real world application, success down to combination of strategies, OC and weight watchers, financial incentives didn’t help, 71% WW maintained 5% weight loss, individual differences, ethical concerns, gender bias, lead to treatments

Question 3

Neural mechanisms

Answer 3

DCT LH VMH, LH damage aphagia VMH damage hyperphagia, NPY stimulates appetite, diets lower leptin levels creating hunger sensations, manipulated NPY in mice and had no effect, lesion to VMH and LH in rats supports DCT, practical application to target those with high NPY, not fully understood, animal ethics, lab experiments, deterministic, set point theory

Question 4

Evolutionary explanations

Answer 4

shaped by environment of early humans, sweet food energy non toxic, people of all ages and animals like it, neonate studies, specific receptors, copper Inuit’s, fatty foods vital to survival, 4-5yrs preferred higher calorie vegetables, starving chimps eat fatty part of monkeys ,individuals likes dislikes, modern healthy practices not passed doesn’t evolutionary, unfalsifiable, nature/nurture

Question 5

Psychological explanations for obesity

Answer 5

30kg/m, psychodynamic unresolved childhood conflicts, emotional deprivation overindulgence in oral stage, linked to depression can also be explained psychodynamicly, 5 sleep eaters with obesity, relationship between childhood abuse and obesity, unconscious desire to reduce anxiety and reduce sexual attractiveness, no rise in abuse like obesity, behaviourist OC CC SLT, treatments successful but only short term and doesn’t guarantee cause, practical applications, food is prime reinforce, only in cultures with obesity

Question 6

Biological explanations for obesity

Answer 6

genetics so some more likely, 2 copies of FTO 70% increase 1 copy 30%, 77% hereditability factor for twins, still need environment to express themselves, practical application, cant explain obesity upsurge, evolutionary advantage, foods not part of past don’t trigger neural mechanisms, thrifty gene, liquid calories more weight than solid ones, pacific islanders, obesity rise where HFCS isn’t available, reductionist