Eating Behaviour - Division A

Division A - Eating behaviour

 Attitudes to food and eating behaviour explanations for the success and failure of dieting

Explanations of attitudes to food and eating behaviour.

Social Learning Cultural Influences Mood and eating behaviour

Social Learning

Parental Modelling: child observes parents behaviour.  parental  attitudes to food inevitably effect children as parents control food bought and served. research suggests an association between parents and child's general attitudes to food.  Brown and Ogden (2004) reported consistent correlations between parents and their children in terms of snack intake, eating motivations and body dissatisfaction. Media Effects: role of SL is evident in the role of the media.  MacIntyre et al. (1998) found the media impacted what people eat and also their attitudes to certain foods.  however, researchers state eating behaviours are also limited by personal circumstances e.g. age, income and family circumstances.  so, people learn about healthy foods from the media but must place this information within their lives.

Cultural Influences

Ethnicity: research suggests body dissatisfaction and related concerns/disorders are more characteristic of white women than black or Asian (Powell and Kahn, 1995). Ball and Kenardy (2002) studied over 1400 women 18-23 in Australia. Results showed that for all ethnic groups, the longer time spent in Australia, the more the women reported attitudes and eating behaviours similar to those born in Australia.  this is known as the acculturation effect.  Social Class: a number of studies found that body dissatisfaction, eating behaviour and disorders are more common in higher-class individuals.  Dornbusch et al (1984) surveyed 7000 american adolescents & concluded higher-class females had a greater desire to be thin & were more likely to diet to acheive this than lower-class were.  Goode et al. (2008) used data from 2003 Scottish Health Survey & established that income was positively associated with healthy eating. 

Mood and Eating Behaviour