Learning key question

Question 1

Key question

Answer 1

what are the implications for society if anorexia is a learned disorder?

Question 2

A01

Answer 2

• Estimates suggest that over 1 million people in the UK have an eating disorder
• 90% of anorexia cases are female with an average onset age of 15 years.
• DSM-IV states it occurs in 0.8-6.3% of women and 0.1-0.3% of men
• 20% have one episode and recover completely, while 60% follow an episodic pattern of weight gain and relapse over several years. Remaining 20% continue to be affected and often require hospitalization.
• Mortality rate of those admitted to hospital is over 10% due to starvation or suicide
• AN has a higher mortality rate than any other mental health disorder
• Of the 1.6 million people in the UK who are affected by an eating disorder, around two-thirds will have visited “how-to” sites such as hers.
• Though Jade’s remarks are shocking, they are far from unique. She is part of a growing international group of “pro-ana” (anorexia) and “pro-mia” (bulimia) bloggers
• Hospitalisation –8% rise in admissions for eating disorders in 2013.

Question 3

Social learning theory

A02 - how can this explain the prevalence and onset of anorexia?

Answer 3

- Attention: The followers of these people would pay attention to the anorexia tips and behaviours
- Retention: They may then retain the images of their bodies and anorexic behaviours. Like how to hide weight loss etc.
- Motor reproduction: Potential also try to reproduce that body type themselves. This could be done by copying the dieting and purging behaviour the bloggers exhibit (following Jade’s advice and tips).
- Motivation: The motivation can come from the facts that many of these blogs get lots of praise and support on social media, some may have feel vicariously reinforced to want to imitate the model due to this.

Question 4

Social learning theory

AO2 - Link it to a psychological theory

Answer 4

• Becker et al (2002) demonstrated similar trends as once TV was introduced to Fiji, a country where a robust body was celebrated, dieting and purging rates increased significantly. The Fijian teenagers saw the actors and actresses as role models on TV and imitated their behaviour through observational learning.

Question 5

Social learning theory

AO2 - How does SLT answer the key question?

Answer 5

This suggest that celebrity culture and those bloggers that “thinspire” (thin and an inspiration), could be partly responsible for the increased prevalence of anorexia in society with their blogs. This is an issue because celebrities and models are everywhere

Question 6

Operant Conditioning

A02 - how can this explain the prevalence and onset of anorexia?

Answer 6

• peer acceptance, important during adolescence, susceptible to peer influence on patterns of disordered eating
• told they ‘look good’, losing weight in order to stay slim, encourages repetition of this behaviour (positive reinforcement)
• teasing + bullying, adolescents who not fit ideal image, bullies (positive punishment) and excluded from social events (negative punishment) = healthy eating behaviours
• Individuals blogging about own journey receive more positive reinforcement from followers and fans
• individual gets thinner, negative reinforcement, like their body less

Question 7

Operant Conditioning

AO2 - How does this answer the key question?

Answer 7

• As celebrities or anorexic role model may want to avoid being shamed, they may keep up a warped image of what their bodies look like. They enjoy the reinforcement of the groups and many young people could try to imitate this type of dieting and eating behaviour.
• However, despite widespread exposure to celebrity culture, only a relatively small portion of society become anorexic, which suggests that genetic factors may predispose some people to become anorexic.