Discuss psychological explanations of one eating disorder
Discuss Psychological explanations of one eating disorder. (8+16)
Psychological explanations of obesity include the psychodynamic and the behaviourist approach. Behaviourism suggests three means by which obesity may occur; classical conditioning, operant conditioning and social learning theory.
There is a great deal of evidence for the behavioural explanation. Classical conditioning is where eating becomes associated with other behaviours that are often routine, leading to eating when not hungry for example snacking whilst watching TV. Evidence for this as a cause of obesity comes from Fletcher et al's 'Do something different' study which shows how breaking such habitual associations prevents overeating, and so leads to weight loss, even for people who are not actually dieting.
Furthermore, evidence for the role of operant conditioning, which is related to food being used as a reward, comes from Wansink at al who noted that people can turn to food and eat excessively for comfort, using food as a reward. However, operant conditioning alone cannot explain obesity, as we know there are biological factors which affect how rewarding certain foods are, therefore the behavioural approach as an explanation of obesity can be seen as reductionist.
Operant conditioning, although not offering a full explanation for the causes of obesity, does have some good practical applications. Techniques using operant conditioning have been very successful in reinforcing healthy eating practices. Devlin and Yanovki found P's on such a programme has an average weight loss of between 15 and 20 llbs on the scheme. However, just because it is successful in treating the eating disorder doesn't mean it can be seen as a viable cause for obesity.
Social Learning theory is the third means by which the behaviourist approach suggests obesity may occur and it suggests that obesity is due to observing and imitating obese role models, particularly people we identify with in some way. In order
Psychological explanations of obesity include the psychodynamic and the behaviourist approach. Behaviourism suggests three means by which obesity may occur; classical conditioning, operant conditioning and social learning theory.
There is a great deal of evidence for the behavioural explanation. Classical conditioning is where eating becomes associated with other behaviours that are often routine, leading to eating when not hungry for example snacking whilst watching TV. Evidence for this as a cause of obesity comes from Fletcher et al's 'Do something different' study which shows how breaking such habitual associations prevents overeating, and so leads to weight loss, even for people who are not actually dieting.
Furthermore, evidence for the role of operant conditioning, which is related to food being used as a reward, comes from Wansink at al who noted that people can turn to food and eat excessively for comfort, using food as a reward. However, operant conditioning alone cannot explain obesity, as we know there are biological factors which affect how rewarding certain foods are, therefore the behavioural approach as an explanation of obesity can be seen as reductionist.
Operant conditioning, although not offering a full explanation for the causes of obesity, does have some good practical applications. Techniques using operant conditioning have been very successful in reinforcing healthy eating practices. Devlin and Yanovki found P's on such a programme has an average weight loss of between 15 and 20 llbs on the scheme. However, just because it is successful in treating the eating disorder doesn't mean it can be seen as a viable cause for obesity.
Social Learning theory is the third means by which the behaviourist approach suggests obesity may occur and it suggests that obesity is due to observing and imitating obese role models, particularly people we identify with in some way. In order