Obesity- Psychological theory

Question 1

Restraint theory (Herman + Mack)

Answer 1

Attempting to not eat (restriction)actually increases probability of overeating increasing the risk of obesity

Question 2

2 types 
(Research - Provencher et al)

Answer 2

1. Rigid restraint: all or nothing approach and tend to be positively associated with amount of body fat ,waist circumference and BMI
2. Flexible restraint: less strict approach where fattening foods are limited without guilt and is negatively associated with the three measures of obesity

Question 3

Boundary model (Herman + Polivy)

Answer 3

Says that food intake is regulated along a continuum with hunger at one end and fullness at the other where food intake is driven by biological processes ; low energy levels create hunger and sufficient levels create fullness

Question 4

Middle

Answer 4

In between the two extremes is the ‘zone of biological indifference’ where a person is no longer full or hungry so intake is then determined by social and cultural factors ; restraint eaters zone is larger due to a lower threshold of hunger and satiation (less sensitive)

Question 5

Dieters

Answer 5

Have a self imposed ‘diet boundary’ that has a lower satiation threshold and determined by what they believe they should or should not eat ; yet if they go over this limit experience the ‘what the hell’ effect as the boundary has been surpassed so continues to eat until satiation or more

Question 6

Disinhibition

Hays + Roberts

Answer 6

Tendency to overeat in response to a different stimuli e.g when presented with lots of foods or under emotional distress ; in these situations normal inhibitions that stop us overeating are removed

Question 7

3 Types (Bond et al)

Answer 7

1. Habitual : overeating due to daily life circumstances
2. Emotional: response to emotional states e.g depression
3. Situational: response to environmental cues e.g weddings, buffets

Question 8

Habitual disinhibition

Answer 8

Shown to be the most correlated with weight gain and obesity due to the number of overeating opportunities that surround people in the Western food environment ; Bryant et al calls this ‘opportunistic eating’

Question 9

Key study: Herman and Mack

*Procedure

Answer 9

• Pps were asked to not eat for several hours
• Then randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups : no milkshake , one milkshake or two milkshakes
• After given 3 flavours of ice cream to taste and told it was to determine whether the flavour of the milkshake affected their sensory experience of ice cream

Question 10

Findings

Answer 10

• Pps who were not on a diet ate less ice cream if drank the milkshake
• Those on the diet and did not have the milkshake were very restraint when tasting ice cream
• Those who had already had the milkshake ate more ice cream ; the bigger the preload the more they had

Question 11

*Evaluation

Restraint theory support

Answer 11

Wardle + Beales assigned 27 obese women to a diet group, exercise group or non treatment group and assessed after 4 and 6 weeks
At week 4 food intake was assessed before and after a preload and at week 6 under stressful conditions
In both women in the diet group ate more than all groups

Question 12

What the hell effect as a rebellious reaction

Answer 12

The effect is described as a breakdown of the dieters self control however Odgen and Wardle argue rather than passively giving into the desire to eat they might actually decide to overeat as a form of rebellion against their self imposed food restrictions

Question 13

Disinhibition : cultural + gender bias

Answer 13

Most research is particularly on white women not men or other racial groups, Atlas et al found restraint and disinhibition scores were much lower in African American students compared to White students suggests these behaviours are less common in other groups