Explanations for success and failure of dieting

Question 1

Theory of hedonic eating (Stroebe)

Answer 1

Restraint eaters may find it hard to maintain their diet as they are more sensitive to the hedonic properties of food (pleasurable) leading them to be triggered by the perception of attractive food and a desire to eat

Question 2

Result

Answer 2

Their cognitive process will be geared towards this goal with any conflicting goals being inhibited ; because eating enjoyment and eating control are incompatible goals increasing thoughts of eating enjoyment inhibits thoughts of control

Question 3

Attention allocation (Mischel+Ayduk)

Answer 3

Once food has triggered pleasurable thoughts ,restraint eaters then find it hard to withdraw their attention from the item; unless reminded of their diet goal find it difficult to resist the temptation to eat

Question 4

Role of denial

Answer 4

Research has found attempting to suppress/deny a thought makes it more prominent
Wenger et al asked pps to not think about a white bear and ring a bell If they did and other pps to think about one; those who were not meant to rang the bell more which he calls ‘theory of ironic process of mental control’

Question 5

Theory of ironic process of mental control

Answer 5

In dieting the decision to not eat certain foods results in a state of denial as attempts to suppress thoughts instead increases their desire for these foods ; as soon as food is denied it becomes more attractive

Question 6

Detail

Answer 6

Redden says the key to a successful diet is to pay attention to what is being eaten , instead of thinking ‘not another salad’ focus on the details of the meal e.g tomato, chicken etc as it decreases people becoming bored and maintains their diet

Question 7

Jelly bean experiment

*Procedure

Answer 7

• 135 people had 22 jelly beans one at a time with information about them flashed onto a computer screen
• One group had general info whereas the other had specific flavour details

Question 8

Findings

Answer 8

• Pps got bored faster if they only saw general info
• Those with specific details enjoyed them more
• Shows that denial gets rid of the repetitive feeling and boosts enjoyment making the diet easier

Question 9

*Evaluation

Support for hedonic theory

Answer 9

Brunstorm et al tested salivary reactivity in 40 female pps when in close proximity to pizza
Those who were dieting(restraint) showed greater salivary response than pps not dieting (unrestraint)
Showing the difference of the reaction between their perceptions of food

Question 10

Limitation of studies

Answer 10

They rely on personal accounts of individuals (anecdotal evidence)which have problems that controlled scientific studies do not have for example memory is not 100% accurate creating reliability problems , extraneous variables are also not controlled making the connection between an approach to dieting and weight loss made too easy

Question 11

Free will or determinism

Answer 11

A number of genetic mechanisms have an influence on weight not just an individuals lifestyle for example lipoprotein lipase is an enzyme produced by fat cells to store calories yet if too much is produced the body will store too many calories
Kern et al measured LPL levels of pps before dieting and again after 3 months and found levels rose after weight loss; the fatter the person was the higher LPL levels making it harder for some to lose weight due to genetics