Psychological Explanations For Obesity

Question 1

Paradoxical outcome

Answer 1

• when the restrainted eater becomes more preoccupied with food, not just eating when hungry
• leads to disinhibition of eating behaviour

Question 2

Disinhibition

Answer 2

• in the presence of certain environmental triggers normal social constraints can be weakened
• for a time the behaviours become more socially acceptable and therefore more likely to occur

Question 3

Hunger boundary

Answer 3

• the margin between aversive hunger and the zone of biological indifference

Question 4

Boundary model

Answer 4

• explains how restrained eaters are less sensitive to satiety and need more food before feeling full
• when they have self-imposed an eating boundary they will continue to eat up to the satiety boundary and are prone to weight gain

Question 5

Disinhibitiors

Answer 5

• internal and external food-related triggers

Question 6

Restraint theory

Answer 6

• a cognitive explanation that argues obesity is the paradoxical outcome of attempts to restrain eating
• self-imposing targets that are often unrealistic
• proposed by Herman and Mack
• leads to exessive intake and the ‘what the hell’ effect

Question 7

Zone of biological indifference

Answer 7

• the area between the hunger boundary and the satiety boundary is wider meaning more eating behaviour comes under cognitive rather than biological control
• more vulnerable to disinhibition

Question 8

Restrained eating

Answer 8

• limiting the amount of food that you eat, typically to lose weight

Question 9

Cognitive control

Answer 9

• categories food into good and bad
• create rules about what’s allowed/forbidden
• restrained diet is very organised way of imposing the control
  -> consciously thinking about weight and eating

Question 10

Wardle and Beals

Answer 10

• randomly assigned 27 women to 1 of 3 groups;
• diet group, exercise group, non-treatment group-> 7 weeks
• groups were assessed in lab conditions at 4 and 6 weeks
• 4 weeks; assessed before and after preload
• 6 weeks; food intake assessment under stressful conditions
  -> discovered that those in the diet condition ate more than others, following restraint theory’s prediction

Question 11

Practical application

Answer 11

• the boundary model predicts that when food intake is consciously limited, the paradoxical outcome can be disinhibition, overeating, weight gain and obesity
  -> despite this obesity treatments and advice usually encourage dietary restraint

ZANDIAN et al suggested weight loss advice should avoid recommending restraint and foucs instead on training dieters to eat at a slower rate

Question 12

Restraint is ‘multi-faced’

Answer 12

• restraint is more complex than the boundary model indicates
• 2 different forms; rigid restraint - all or nothing - or a flexible restraint, which allows the eater to eat limited amounts of some forbidden foods, without necessarily triggering disinhibition

-> only rigid restraint is likely to lead to obesity, oversimplifies?