Aqa A2 Psychology Unit 3 Eating Behaviour: Psychological Explanations of One Eating Disorder - Anorexia Nervosa Notes Essay

A2 Psychology Unit 3 Eating Behaviour: Psychological Explanations Of One Eating Disorder - Anorexia Nervosa Notes

What You Need To Know:

Psychological Explanations Of One Eating Disorder - Anorexia Nervosa
Anorexia Nervosa:

What is it?
• Refusal to maintain minimum normal weight and fear of weight gain.
• Deliberate weight-loss and a weight of 15% or more below normal.
• Disturbance in perception of own body shape, leading to an insistence that the person is overweight.
• It is often co-morbid with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and/or depression.
• There are two kinds: `restricted` type - associated with self-starvation, but not purging; and `binge-eating/purging` type.
• There are many medical side effects, with about 5% dying of the disorder.
Psychological Explanations Of Anorexia Nervosa:
Experiential factors
• Trauma, abuse, bullying, teasing about appearance, and bereavement are linked to eating disorder development.
Research
• Rastam and Gillberg (1991) found that 14% of anorexics had experienced a negative life event in the three months prior to the disorder onset whereas none of the controls had.
• Other research supports this, but such research is correlational and retrospective so hard to interpret.
• Childhood sexual abuse is a risk factor, but not every abused child grows to develop an eating disorder, nor is it clear why there should be a link.
Research
• Casper and Lyubomirsky (1997) suggest that adverse early experiences lead to other psychopathologies underlying eating disorders.
• Polivy and Herman (2002) suggested that where a person feels their life is `out of control` in some way, controlling themselves and their body and weight provides them with a sense of control. Individuals therefore derive emotional gratification from anorexia.
Cognitive factors
• Anorexia is associated with obsessive thoughts and rigid