Eating behaviour - explanations for success of dieting

Question 1

Ogden (psychological model)

Answer 1

• questionnaire
• three groups: stable obese, weight loss re-gainers, weight loss maintainers
• weight loss maintainers were lighter before dieting, older and spent longer dieting
• weight loss maintainers were likely to endorse medical explanations for obesity and reported that they had been motivated to lose weight for psychological reasons
• as they were lighter this suggests they found it biologically easier to lose weight and maintain it

Question 2

Ogden and Hills (psychological model)

Answer 2

• weight loss maintainers reported that weight loss is often triggered by life event e.g divorce or marriage
• older people more likely to experience these life events?
• supports idea of psychological motivation

Question 3

Redden (attention to detail)

Answer 3

• participants had to eat fruit flavoured jelly beans and asked to indicate how well they could indicate flavours and how much they enjoyed eating them
• one group given specific flavour labels; enjoyed jellybeans for longer
• other group just given jellybeans; gave lower assessments as experiment wore on
• more detail about jellybean led to higher ratings of enjoyment
• suggests if applied to healthy food then people will enjoy it for longer and keep eating it

Question 4

Park (enthocentric research)

Answer 4

• some cultures find it harder to deal with weight loss; may be due to genetics or cultural factors