Eating Behaviours Flashcards
Birch and Fisher
The best predictors of daughters eating habits were the mothers dietary restraint and their perception of the risks of the daughters becoming overweight
Parental Modelling
Children observe their parents eating behaviour and learn from it
Meyer and Gast
Surveyed 10-12 year old girls and found a significant positive correlation between peer influence and disordered eating
Brown and Ogden
Consistent correlations between parents and their children in terms of snack food intake, eating motivations and body dissatisfaction
Define media effects
We learn from the media about food and eating behaviour
Becker
Gave 63 Fijan girls a questionnaire before 1995 on attitudes towards eating
Gave 65 Fijan girls a questionnaire after 1998 on attitudes towards eating following the impact of TV in Fiji
They found that there was a 12% increase in the number of women who vomited to control weight
This indicates a strong link between the exposure to Western ideals of thinness and changed attitudes towards eating
Tapper, Horne and Lowe
Created a website called Food Dudes and tested the effects of the website and videos on primary school children
Large and long-lasting increases in fruit and vegetable consumption in children from 2-11 years of age
The greatest increases in consumption are shown by those children who are, at the start, the poorest eaters of fruit and vegetables
Long lasting changes to dietary patterns and further and vegetable consumption
Increases extended across a wide range of fruit and vegetable varieties
Effects are highly reliable, regardless of school location and social deprivation
MacIntyre
Found the media have a major impact both on what people eat and also their attitudes towards certain foods.
However, they are limited by personal circumstances such as age, income and family circumstances
Thus, people may learn from the media about healthy eating but must place this information within the broader context of their lives
Dornbusch et al.
Surveyed 7000 American adolescents Higher class females had a greater desire to be thin and were more likely to diet to achieve this that their lower class counterparts
Goode et al
Used data from 2003 Scottish Health Survey
Income was positively associated with healthy eating
Story et al.
Sample of American students Higher social class related to greater satisfaction and lower rates of weight control methods such as vomiting
Powell and Khan
Found that body dissatisfaction and related eating concerns and disorders are more characteristic of white women than black of Asian women
Ball and Kenardy
Studied over 14 thousand women between the ages of 18 and 33 in Australia
For all ethnic groups, the longer the time spent in Australia the more women reported attitudes and eating behaviours similar to women born in Australia (acculturation effect)
Mumford
Incidence of bulimia was greater among Asian schoolgirls than among their white counterparts
Striegel-Moore et al
More evidence of a drive for thinness among black girls than among white girls
Davis et al.
Self-monitoring studies
One hour before a binge, bulimic individuals had more negative mood states than one hour before a normal snack or meal
Wegner et al.
Students recorded their eating patterns and mood states over a two-week period
Binge says were characterised by generally low mood compared to non-binge days
No difference in mood found before and after a binge
Low moods may make binge-eating more likely but do not alleviate the low mood state
Garg et al
Observed food choices of 38 participants when watching an upbeat funny movie compared to a sad depressing movie
Participants were offered popcorn and seedless grapes throughout the films
Those watching the sad film consumed 36% more popcorn than those watching the upbeat film
Those watching the upbeat film ate far more grapes
People who feel sad or depressed want to jolt themselves out of the dumps so they eat foods that give them a sudden rush of euphoria
When participants were presented with the nutritional information prior to viewing, consumption of unhealthy food dropped dramatically
Parker et al
Although chocolate has a slight antidepressant effect for some people when consumed as an emotional eating strategy it is more likely to prolong rather than alleviate the negative mood particularly if used repeatedly
Restraint Theory
The restraint theory was developed by Herman and Mack (1975) as an attempt to explain the causes and consequences associated with the cognitive restriction of food intake. They suggest that attempting not to eat actually increases the probability of over-eating.
Boundary Model
Hunger keeps intake of food above a certain minimum, and satiety works it keep intake below some maximum level. Between these two levels, psychological factors have the greatest impact on consumption. Dieters tend to have a larger range between hunger and satiety levels as it takes them longer to feel hungry and more food to satisfy them. In addition, restrained eaters have self-imposed desired intake. Once they have gone over this boundary they continue to eat until they reach satiety i.e. Beyond the maximum level imposed by their diet
Wardle and Beales
Assigned 27 obese women to either a diet group, an exercise group or a non-treatment group for seven weeks.
The women were assed throughout under laboratory conditions.
Results showed that women in the diet condition ate more than women in the exercise and non-treatment groups.
The Role of Denial
Research in cognitive psychology has shown that attempting to suppress or deny a thought frequently has the opposite effect, making it even more prominent. Wegner et al refers to this as the theory of ironic processes of mental control because it represents a paradoxical effect of thought control, i.e. denial often backfires.
Soetens et al.
Divided into restrained and unrestrained eaters
Restrained eaters subdivided into those who were either high or low disinhibition
Those who tried to eat less but would often overeat (disinhibited) used more thought suppression and showed more rebound effect
Restrained eaters who tended to overeat try to suppress thoughts about food more often, but when they do, think about more food afterwards.
Redden and Successful Dieting Theory
Redden suggests that the secret to successful dieting lies in the attention we pay to what is being eaten. He claims that people usually like experiences less as they repeat them. When it comes to dieting, this makes it harder to stick to particular regime. To overcome this, suggests Redden, instead of thinking ‘not another salad’, we should focus on the details of the meal. By focusing on the specific details of each meal, people get bored less easily and so are better able to maintain their diet.
Redden (jelly beans)
Gave 135 people 22 jelly beans each, one at a time
As each bean was dispensed, information about it flashed onto a screen
One group saw general information e.g. Bean number seven
The other group saw specific flavour details e.g. Cherry flavour
Participants got bored faster if they saw general information
ER: Media Effects (TV and Underweight Charcaters)
In the estimated 30,000 adverts seen by adolescents per year, approximately 23% of female characters are underweight
ER: Hsu et al.
Thinness is gaining more value within the African-American culture, just as it has in the Caucasian culture
ER: Isolated tribe in Peru vs. Those in cities
Pictures of thin, normal and plump girls shown to an isolated tribe in Peru
Preference was plump women
Those from the tribe who had moved to towns/cities preferred the thin women
ER: Robinson et al.
Hispanic and Asian-American girls showed greater body dissatisfaction than white girls
ER: Bemporad
Some modern Muslim societies limit the social behaviour of women according to male dictates; in these societies, eating disorders are virtually unknown
Freedom may be a sociocultural factor that predisposes the development of eating disorders in women
Lateral Hypothalamus
Hunger increases as glucose levels decrease
A decline in glucose levels in the blood activates the lateral hypothalamus
The lateral hypothalamus is activated which produces feelings of hunger
Ventromedial Hypothalamus
When glucose levels rise, the ventromedial hypothalamus is activated
The ventromedial hypothalamus produces feelings of satiation
This causes the person/animal to stop eating
Neuropeptide Y
This is a neurotransmitter found in the hypothalamus
‘Turns on’ eating (research to suggest that more of NPY leads to more eating)
Sakurai et al.
Sakurai et al. - Although the lateral hypothalamus plays an important part in eating it is not the body’s ‘eating centre’. It controls other things e.g. Sex drive and thirst. Eating behaviour seems to be controlled by neural circuits running throughout the brain rather than just in the hypothalamus
Marie et al.
Marie et al. Genetically manipulated mice to prevent production of NPY but there was no subsequent decrease in eating behaviour
Gold et al.
Gold - Damage to nerve fibres running through VMH also damages the paraventricular nucleus in the hypothalamus - damage to this alone causes hyperphagia. Damage to the VMH alone and not the paraventricular nucleus does not lead to overeating
Wickens et al.
Wickens (2000) - When NPY is injected into the hypothalamus of rats, they immediately begin feeding, despite satiation
Yang et al,
Yang et al. NPY is also produced by abdominal fat - this leads to a vicious cycle where NPY leads to more eating and then more fat cells are produced and this leads to even more NPY being produced and so on…
Stanley et al
Stanley et al. repeated injections of NPY into the hypothalamus of rats produces obesity in just a few days
Zald and Pardo
Provided physiological evidence to support the claim that the amygdala participates in the emotional processing of olfactory stimuli
Exposed healthy adults to aversive olfactory (different smells) whilst measuring blood flow to the amygdala through a PET scan
Unpleasant odours produces significant blood flow increases whilst pleasant odours did not
Increased blood flow to the amygdala is associated with subjective ratings of perceived unpleasantness of smell
Rolls and Rolls
surgical removal of the amygdala in rats causes the animals to consume both familiar and novel (unfamiliar) foods indiscriminately. Amygdala intact rats would avoid novel foods.
The amygdala
The role of the amygdala is thought to primarily be in the selection of foods on the basis of previous experience
Inferior Pre-frontal Cortex
Receives messages from the olfactory bulb (part of the brain responsible for smell)
Odours influence the taste of food
Kolb and Whishaw
Damage to the inferior pre-frontal cortex decreases eating because of diminished sensory responses to smell and taste
Lutter et al
Lutter et al. - may not be under purely neural control. The body produces extra quantities of the hormone ghrelin in response to stress. This also boosts appetite lead in to increased comfort eating.
Kluver-Bucy Syndrome
Kluver-Bucy syndrome - damage to the amygdala and inferior prefrontal cortex can explain the feeding abnormalities observed in this. Symptoms include increased appetite, indiscriminate eating and attempts to eat non-food items. Research suggests food cues no longer accurately represent their real reward value to the individual
Zhang et al
mice who receive two copies of the gene for overeating (ob/ob) have defective genes for the protein lepton, injecting them with lepton made them lose weight (could be genetics not neural mechanisms)
Stanford
His observations of chimpanzees in Tanzania demonstrated that after coming close to starvation, when they do manage a kill they to straight for the fattiest parts, rather than the tender, more nutritious flesh
Gibson and Wardle
Provided evidence to support the importance of calories in the ancestral diet. The best way to predict which fruit and vegetables are preferred by four to five year olds was how dense they were in calories. Bananas and potatoes are more calorie-rich and more likely to be chosen by children
Milton
Milton claims that it is unlikely that early humans could have secured enough nutrition from a vegetarian diet to evolve into the active and intelligent creatures they became.
Garcia et al
Garcia et al. were the first to study taste aversion in the lab. Rats who had been made ill through radiation shortly after eating saccharin developed an aversion to it and associated their illness with saccharin
Seligman
Claimed that different species evolved different learning abilities, something he called biological preparedness. This natural selection of differential learning bad occurred so that species have the ability to learn certain associations more than others, particularly those that help them to survive.
Bernstein and Webster
Bernstein and Webster give patients a novel-tasting ice cream prior to chemotherapy and the patients acquired aversion to that ice cream. This has led to the development of the ‘scapegoat technique’ which involves giving cancer patients a novel food along with some familiar food prior to chemotherapy. The patient forms an aversion to the new food and not to the familiar, usual food.
Sandell and Breslin
Sandell and Breslin screened 35 adults for the hTAS2R38 bitter taste receptor gene. Participants rated bitterness of various vegetables, some containing glucosinolates (toxic at high levels). Those with the sensitive form of the gene rates the glucosinolate-containing vegetables as 60% more bitter than those with the incentive form of the gene.
