Psychological Anorexia

Question 1

Sociocultural explanations

Answer 1

Western standards of attractiveness are often linked with being thin the national diet and nutrition survey of young people stated that 16% of young girls were on a diet

Question 2

Support for sociocultural explanations

Answer 2

Jaeger et al studied 1751 students in 12 nations western and non western. They used self reporting methods to gather data on body dissatisfaction/self esteem. They showed 10 body silhouettes to participants to assess body dissatisfaction. Most extreme dissatisfaction found in Mediterranean countries, then Northern Europeans, then countries becoming westernised and lowest in non westernised.

Question 3

Criticism of sociocultural explanations

Answer 3

Hook studies the hospital records of 44,192 people in Curaçao where it is acceptable to be overweight and still found 6 cases of anorexia. Indicating that anorexia is not solely caused by the influence of cultural norms

Question 4

Media influences

Answer 4

The media may also influence the desire to be thin - we may learn to associate success with a certain body type.

Question 5

Support for media influence

Answer 5

Eating attitudes of Fijian girls since the introduction of TV in 1995 showed an increased desire to lose weight and to become more like television stars. Yet other studies show that instruction and explanation before the media influence can reduce the effects

Question 6

Ethnicity

Answer 6

Grabe and Hyde found that African-Americans demonstrated much less body dissatisfaction than Caucasians and Hispanic females. This may be because African communities embrace a fuller figure and see it as a sign of fertility. This suggests that cultural norms and the media are important

Question 7

Peer influences

Answer 7

Jones and Crawford found that overweight girls and underweight boys are teased more - through teasing peers enforce gender based ideas. Shows a link between eating behaviour an peer influence

Question 8

Psychological factors and personality

Answer 8

Bruch’s psychodynamic theory states that the origins of anorexia lie in childhood and inconsistent parenting. As a result the child may grow up confused about their internal needs and to overcome their sense of helplessness they control their eating

Question 9

Support for psychological factors

Answer 9

Steiner found that parents of anorexics often tend to define their child’s needs based on their own and that they anticipate them feel it.

Button and Warren found that anorexics often worry excessively about that other people think of them and feel a lack of control over their life - food is the only thing they can control

Question 10

Minuchin’s family systems theory

Answer 10

According to this theory some parent’s may be too perfect and are often rigid and are lacking warmth. Children may develop anorexia because they grow up as a part of w close knit family and so have a strong desire to develop their own identity - hence they become anorexic.

Question 11

Problems with family systems theory

Answer 11

Does not explain the actual cause of anorexia but rather the context
Why it is mainly a problem for women and has increased

Question 12

Perfectionism

Answer 12

Strober evaluated traits in teenagers receiving treatment for anorexia nervosa and found that perfectionism was a trait in 50% of the boys and 73% of the girls

Question 13

Problems with anorexia research

Answer 13

• ethics

- gender bias