Norm-Violation, Norm-Adherence, and Overeating

Two routes to overeating are discussed; they are both premised on people’s strong motivation to avoid eating excessively and thereby avoid negative ascriptions associated with the overeating/overweight stereotype. The first route to overeating involves infractions of restrictive intake norms: people who attempt to restrict their intake by implementing dietary rules often run afoul of disinhibitory circumstances that undermine the self-control upon which successful dieting depends. The second route to overeating involves adherence to restrictive intake norms in situations where it is unclear how much eating is permitted. People search the environment for indicants of what constitutes permissible intake and end up relying on such arbitrary criteria as portion size and the intake of other people. Using such criteria derived from the eating situation often leads to overeating even while individuals believe that they are successfully restricting their intake

Eating Disorders

Eating disorders are causing increasing problems in our society, and many approaches to treatment are used, some more successful than others. This volume provides therapists and students with practical and evidence-based guidance on diagnosis and treatment of eating disorders. It builds on existing knowledge as well as the enormous wealth of clinical experience that the authors have developed over the past three decades. It assumes a basic understanding of therapeutic intervention and some clinical training. This book will be of interest not only to those clinicians who have developed a special expertise in eating disorders, but to psychologists, psychiatrists, general practitioners, dietitians, social workers, nurses, and other allied mental health practitioners as well

The processing of thin ideals in fashion magazines: a source of social comparison or fantasy?

The present study aimed to investigate the role of processing in women’s responses to thin idealized images of beauty. A sample of 144 women viewed magazine advertisements containing either thin ideal or product images. Instructional set was manipulated with three levels: control, social comparison, and fantasy instructions. It was found that exposure to thin ideal images led to increased negative mood and body dissatisfaction, while instructional set had its effect on positive mood and body dissatisfaction. For thin ideal images, social comparison instructions led to greater negative mood and body dissatisfaction, while fantasy instructions led to improved positive mood. Importantly, regression analyses indicated that both comparison processing (negatively) and fantasy processing (positively) were associated with women’s response to thin ideal images. It was concluded that the nature of the processing women engage in is crucial to their response to thin ideal images

Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we diet: Effects of anticipated deprivation on food intake in restrained and unrestrained eaters.

Central Asia - Uzbek with embroidery machine, UzbekistanColorVolume 136, Page 1

Is the Body the Self? Women and Body Image

This paper discusses how women’s body image or experience of the body influences their identity and self-image. What are the implications of this tendency to equate the body and the self? For many women, being a dieter represents not only something that they do, but also an important aspect of how they see themselves. We propose that choosing to become a chronic dieter is a means of regulating not just one’s feelings, but also one’s identity and self-image when those central aspects of the self feel threatened. Weight-loss dieting is often unsuccessful, however, and repeated dieting attempts may increase weight as often as they reduce it, so using body shape to determine self-worth or identity is a maladaptive strategy for most women

What’s that you’re eating? Social comparison and eating behavior

Abstract People seem to have a basic drive to assess the correctness of their opinions, abilities, and emotions. Without absolute indicators of these qualities, people rely on a comparison of themselves with others. Social comparison theory can be applied to eating behavior. For example, restrained eaters presented with a standard slice of pizza ate more of a subsequent food if they thought that they had gotten a bigger slice of pizza than others (i.e., had broken their diets), whereas unrestrained eaters ate less. Social influences on eating such as modeling and impression formation also rely on comparison of one’s own eating to others. Comparing one’s food to others’ meals generally influences eating, affect, and satisfaction

Diagnosis and treatment of normal eating

The shift in societal preference toward a thin physique has led to an increasing prevalence of dieting such that "normal " eating for North American women is now characterized by dieting. In this article, we explore similarities between such normal dieters and individuals with an eating disorder and question whether a continuity exists between normal and abnormal eating behavior. The regulation of intake among normal dieter and patient populations is compared and is explained by the boundary model of consumption, which leads to the conclusion that in neither group is eating technically disordered, although it does depart from appropriate physiological norms. We conclude that many normal eaters (i.e., dieters or restrained eaters) display characteristics of eating-disorder pathologies and should be treated accordingly. Such treatment involves changing both the patient and the environment, especially societal attitudes toward body weight and shape. The current societal preference for a thin physique has spawned a corresponding societal preoccupation with dieting and weight loss. The extent of this preoccupation is such that it may now be accurate to regard dieting and its attendant diet mentality as normative, both descriptively and prescriptively