Learning Objective Question:
Do role models encourage anorexia
because they lead to teenagers
wanting to be impossibly thin?
Learning Approach
Lesson objectives
• To be able to answer a key issue question-on
anorexia nervosa
• To be able to describe and evaluate a
treatment for anorexia nervosa
• To understand the methodology section of LA
and recap all prior learning
Anorexia and anorexia nervosa
• Technically "anorexia" just means a loss of
appetite, whereas anorexia nervosa is an eating
disorder. In practice though, the vast majority of
people just say "anorexia" because it's shorter.
• Bulimia nervosa is… having episodes of binge
eating. This is followed by deliberately making
themselves sick (self-induced vomiting) or other
measures to counteract the excessive food intake.
Eating Disorders
• The main two types of eating disorders are
Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia.
• Do you know what the differences are?
• You only need to know anorexia nervosa.
Symptoms of Anorexia Nervosa
• Refusal to eat and maintain a minimum
average expected body weight.
• Fear of gaining weight
• Distorted body image
• Amenorrhea (absence of at least three
consecutive menstrual cycles)
• Weight less than 85% of expected
Learning Approach-Social Learning
Theory
• SLT suggests anorexia nervosa may be due to
role models in the media.
• Young people may feel they have to get to
around the same weight as thin celebrities in
order to be accepted
Social Learning Theory
• Teenagers pay attention to the fact that many
celebrity role models are extremely thin.
• They retain this information.
• They have the ability to reproduce being thin if
they diet excessively and will do it if they are
motivated to do so.
• They can see that their role models are famous
and rich and this may motivate them to be thin
too. Teenagers may think that being thin is what
is needed to be rich and famous or even just
accepted.
Evaluation of the Learning Approach
+ Lai (2000) found that the rate of
anorexia increased for chinese
residents in Hong Kong as the
culture slowly became more
westernised.
+Crisp et al. (1976) found that
dancers and fashion models were
more likely to develop anorexia
nervosa.
+Mumford et al. (1991) found that
Arab and Asian women were
more likely to develop eating
disorders if they moved to the
West.
Doesn’t explain why the
disorder usually develops in
adolescence.
- Everyone sees the pictures
of slim people, so why is it
only some of the population
develop an eating disorder?
- There are psychodynamic
explanations for anorexia
nervosa such as fear of
growing up and family
issues.
-
Key Issue-Describe the issue
• Do role models
encourage anorexia
because they lead to
teenagers wanting to be
impossibly thin?
• 1 in 100 girls said to suffer from
an eating disorder
• 8% of 14 year old girls happy with
their bodies
• Different explanations from each
approach-Biological,
psychodynamic, cognitive etc.
• Kate Moss and Victoria Beckham
said by 95% of girls in a survey to
be most influential role model
Explain the issue using L.A
• SLT suggests that people imitate role models, especially those they
see as relevant to themselves. One concept from the learning
approach is identification. When someone identifies with a role
model they are likely to imitate their behaviour. It is therefore likely
that teenage girls will imitate female models and media celebrities
where there is a trend to be very slim. Studies by Bandura have
shown that girls copy female models and boys copy male models,
so if female role models are slim then girls are likely to want to be
slim. If someone observes behaviour but does not identify with
the role model they are not so likely to perform the behaviour. Girls
who want to be slim are likely to stop eating and can develop eating
disorders such as anorexia.
• Another concept from the learning approach is reinforcement. If a
role model is reinforced for being slim, such as being praised, paid
more or featured a lot in the media, then they might be imitated
more.
Explain the issue using L.A
• Studies by Bandura have shown that behaviour that is rewarded is likely to
be imitated more, such as in vicarious learning. There is also negative
reinforcement for being fat, through criticism and teasing, to avoid being
teased, fat children might starve themselves to slim down which may turn
into anorexia. So not wanting to be fat to avoid criticism and wanting to be
slim to get praise, might be two types of reinforcement that help to
explain anorexia.
• However, anorexia could also be explained in a different way. The
psychodynamic approach suggests that a girl might starve herself to avoid
growing up because she is fixated at a certain psychosexual stage. As well
as this, support comes from the work of Bandura whose research can be
criticised as lacking validity as it was carried out in an unnatural setting
and used unnatural conditions so.
•
Nevertheless anorexia is found around the world between different
cultures and cross cultural studies support the idea that anorexia is
learned.
Biological explanation:
•
•
•
•
•
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One theory is that the system controlling a person’s sense of appetite becomes
disrupted.
The primary setting of many of these abnormalities originate in a small area of the
brain called the limbic system. A specific system called hypothalamic-pituitaryadrenal axis (HPA) may be particularly important in eating disorders. It originates in
the following regions in the brain:
Hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is a small structure that plays a role in
controlling our behavior, such as eating, sexual behavior and sleeping, and
regulates body temperature, emotions, secretion of hormones, and movement.
Appetite is controlled by the hypothalamus. When your body needs more food,
your hypothalamus releases chemicals to stimulate your appetite.
Once you have eaten enough food, hormones signal to your hypothalamus. Your
hypothalamus will then release a different set of chemicals that essentially reward
you for eating, and make you feel satisfied.
It is thought that this ‘appetite-reward pathway’ becomes scrambled in people
with anorexia. The feeling of fullness after a meal does not produce a sense of
reward, but a sense of anxiety, guilt or self-loathing. In turn, feeling hungry may
help reduce these negative feelings.
D.A.R.C.O.C