Eating Behaviour
PSYA3
Miss Bird
Exam information
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50% of the A2-Level marks.
25% of the total A-Level marks.
Exam is 1 hour 30 minutes.
Three essay-style questions chosen from three
topics: Biological Rhythms and Sleep, Aggression and
Eating Behaviour.
• Each section is worth 24 marks (72 marks in total).
• Quality of Written Content (QWC) will be assessed in
each essay.
• Exam date – Tuesday 9th June 2015 PM.
AQA A Specification
Factors influencing attitudes to food and eating behaviour. For example:
Eating behaviour cultural influences; psychological influences (mood); and social influences
(health concerns/media).
Explanations for the success and failure of dieting.
Neural mechanisms involved in controlling eating behaviour.
Biological
explanations of Evolutionary explanations of food preference.
eating behaviour
In relation to either anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa:
Eating disorders
Psychological explanations.
Biological explanations, including neural and evolutionary explanations.
Issues, Debates and Approaches
(IDA)
An important part of the PSYA3 exam and HAVE to be included
for higher mark bands on mark schemes.
Ethical issues.
Gender bias.
Culture bias.
Real-world applications.
Free will vs. Determinism.
Reductionism.
Nature-nurture debate.
Approaches – biological, evolutionary, social, etc.
Independent task
• Complete the colour code/matching task.
• Match the IDA to the correct explanation.
Today’s lesson
Factors influencing attitudes to food and eating behaviour. For example:
Eating behaviour cultural influences; psychological influences (mood); and social
influences (health concerns/media).
Explanations for the success and failure of dieting.
Neural mechanisms involved in controlling eating behaviour.
Biological
explanations of Evolutionary explanations of food preference.
eating behaviour
In relation to either anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa:
Eating disorders
Psychological explanations.
Biological explanations, including neural and evolutionary explanations.
Social Learning Theory (SLT)
What do you know?
 Observation.
 Imitation.
 Modelling.
 Copying.
 Influential role models.
 Receive same rewards.
 Vicarious learning.
 SLT can impact on our attitudes and behaviour.
 In the exam this would all be A01 as you would be
describing SLT in relation to attitudes to food.
Parental modelling? (SLT)
 Children can acquire their eating behaviour and attitudes to
food by observing the behaviour of their parents during
mealtimes.
 Parental attitudes to food affect children because parents
decide what foods to buy and what meals to cook and serve at
home (up to a certain age).
 Parents have a considerable influence in encouraging children
to eat unfamiliar or initially disliked foods (Birch, 1999).
 Research has suggested a link exists between parents’ and
children’s attitudes to food.
 Still A01 as describing how parental modelling (SLT) impacts
on children’s attitudes to food.
A02: Support for SLT
Brown and Ogden (2004)
Aim: to examine parental influence on children’s eating habits and
behaviour, with a focus on snacks.
Procedure
o Consent letter sent to parents.
o Children aged 9-13.
o Questionnaires completed by 112 pairs (parent and child).
o Both completed a questionnaire.
o Included questions on reported snack food intake, motivations
to eat, body dissatisfaction and body differences.
Brown and Ogden (2004)
Findings
Strong correlations between parents and their children in terms of snack food
intake, eating motivations and body dissatisfaction.
Significant correlation between parent and child in terms of unhealthy snack
food eaten yesterday indicating that a more healthy or unhealthy diet shown by
the parents was associated with a similar diet by their child.
Conclusions
The study provides support for the SLT of parental influence on child’s eating
behaviour as the child’s eating behaviour was associated with the parents’
eating behaviour.
This suggests that children’s attitudes to food are influenced by the observation
and imitation of parent’s eating habits.
Evaluation of research?
Focus on snack foods rather than all aspects of child’s diet.
Self-report technique
Correlational research
Nature vs. Nurture
Learning approach
Media effects (A01)
 The role of SLT is evident in the impact of TV and
magazines (media) on what people eat and their
attitudes towards food.
 Many magazines have sections on food and cooking,
such as recipes, healthy eating and restaurant reviews.
 There are many popular TV programmes – ‘Jamie’s
kitchen’, ‘MasterChef’, ‘Come dine with me,’ ‘Supersize
vs. Superskinny,’ and ‘You are what you eat.’
 Some TV programmes are aimed at encouraging healthy
eating.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLgmk323H6k
Health concerns (A01)
 What we eat and how much we eat may make us more or
less likely to develop certain diseases.
 The government and health professionals have produced
guidelines of what constitutes a healthy diet – with a
focus on increasing fruit and vegetable consumption.
 Having a balanced diet can reduce the risk of illness e.g.
heart disease, stroke, hypertension, and some cancers.
 The media can be used to promote healthy eating e.g.
campaigns using billboards, advertisements, posters.
Media influences – Examples
Due to the health concerns surrounding eating behaviour, there
are many TV adverts that encourage people to adopt healthier
eating behaviours.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyusyItS3Og
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvaDBy-EYQ4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3NykkjZIlU
Independent task
Supporting research (A02)
Tapper et al (2003)
Research that looks at SLT and the role of media
influence (videos) on eating behaviour.
Read the key study and identify the APFC.
Extension task: consider some evaluation points.
Independent task
Evaluation (A02)
1. Fill in the missing words to the four
evaluation paragraphs using the
words provided.
2. Summarise each paragraph into
key points.
AQA Specification – where are we?
Factors influencing attitudes to food and eating behaviour. For example:
Eating behaviour cultural influences; psychological influences (mood); and social
influences (health concerns/media).
Explanations for the success and failure of dieting.
Neural mechanisms involved in controlling eating behaviour.
Biological
explanations of Evolutionary explanations of food preference.
eating behaviour
In relation to either anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa:
Eating disorders
Psychological explanations.
Biological explanations, including neural and evolutionary explanations.
Cultural Influences (A01)
 At birth - a few genetically-programmed food biases.
 E.g. Infants show a positive response to sweet tastes
(smile) and a negative response to bitter tastes
(disgust).
 Age of 2 – infants regard everything as potentially
edible.
 Between 2-5 years – infants are ‘neophobic’ =
unwilling to try new foods.
 Through cultural influences and exposure to
different kinds of food as we grow up we develop a
set of beliefs and attitudes towards different foods
and acquire food preferences.
Cultural influences and SLT
 SLT – the media are an important source of cultural
information.
 The media are particularly influential when behaviours are
modelled by people who are similar to ourselves.
A02: Stoneman and Brody (1981)
 Attitudes to food are shaped through TV adverts.
 Found that children expressed a preference for advertised
foods when the children in the adverts were racially similar
rather than racially different from themselves.
Feingold and Mazzella (1998)
 Evidence for the influence of culture on body dissatisfaction.
 Body dissatisfaction =negative feelings/emotions about your body.
 In western societies, thinness in women has been increasingly portrayed as
ideal.
 Studies indicate that women have become more dissatisfied and unhappy
with their body image.
 Supports idea that exposure to ‘ideals’ in culture through the media can
influence body image and consequently could influence attitudes towards
food through SLT.
Discrepancies between
actual and ideal body
weight and size are less
pronounced in cultures
where less emphasis is
placed on thinness.
Cultural differences
 Ethnicity - Body dissatisfaction and
eating concerns or eating disorders
are more characteristic of white
women than black or Asian women.
 Social class – body dissatisfaction,
dieting behaviour and eating
disorders are more common in
higher-class individuals.
 Suggests cultural differences can
influence eating behaviour and
attitudes to food with some groups
being at a higher risk of eating
disorders.
Religion and attitudes to
food (A01)
 One major cultural factor in food choices is
religion.
 Dietary laws based on religious writings and
fundamental beliefs.
 Forbid the eating of certain foods, or require that
certain items of food are prepared in a particular
way.
 Fasting is common (abstinence from all certain
kinds of food/drinks).
Religion and attitudes to food
Some examples
Judaism – food must be prepared in the
right way for it to be ‘Kosher.’
Christianity – bread and wine symbolic
during certain rituals.
Islam – Food regulations (‘Halal’) and
forbidden foods e.g. pork (‘Haram’).
Independent task
Supporting research: Cultural influences (A02)
Read the key study by Bryant and Dundes (2008).
Identify APFC and write in booklets.
Extension task: evaluation points.
You have 10 minutes.
Evaluation of research (A02)
Contradictory findings
 Mumford et al (1991) – found that the incidence of bulimia
was greater among Asian schoolgirls than among their white
counterparts.
 Story et al (1995) – in a sample of American students, higher
social class was related to greater satisfaction with weight
and lower rates of weight control behaviour such as
vomiting.
Psychological Influences:
Mood
 Mood can affect what we choose to eat and eating affects our
mood.
 Binge-eating = consuming large quantities of food in a very
short period of time until the individual is uncomfortably full.
Can be a temporary escape from a negative mood.
 Emotional eating = a.k.a. ‘comfort-eating’ – eating as a way
of dealing with negative emotions rather than as a response
to hunger.
Mood and binge-eating (A02)
Supporting research: Wegner et al (2002)
Aim
 To examine the relationship between mood and binge-eating
behaviour.
Procedure
 27 college students with subclinical eating behaviour.
 Subclinical = below the threshold for clinical diagnosis.
 Recorded own eating patterns and mood states over a two-week
period.
Mood and binge-eating
Research: Wegner et al (2002)
Findings
 On binge days, PTs reported having significantly worse mood than
on non-binge days.
 No difference in mood before and after the binge.
Conclusions
 This suggests that although low mood may make binge-eating
more likely and indicates a relationship between the two, it does
not alleviate the low mood state, even after the binge.
 However it does suggest that mood CAN influence eating
behaviour.
Mood and binge-eating
Research: Wegner et al (2002)
Criticisms
 Small sample.
 College students – similar age.
 Self-report techniques – diaries.
 Correlational.
Independent task
Supporting research: Mood (A02)
Garg et al (2007)
Research that examines how mood can impact on eating
behaviour.
Read the key study and identify the aims, procedures,
findings and conclusions of the study.
You have 10 minutes then Q&A.
Evaluation (A02)
Problems of generalisability
Research has studied: 1. People from a clinical group i.e. diagnosed with an eating
disorder (bulimia nervosa).
2. People from a sub-clinical group i.e. below the threshold
for clinical diagnosis.
3. People from a non-clinical population.
Therefore there are limitations to the degree to which we can
generalise from one group to another.
Evaluation (A02)
Gender bias
Most research has studied females and women’s attitudes to
eating behaviour particularly in terms of body dissatisfaction
and disordered eating.
Therefore this provides a limited view of attitudes to food and
eating behaviour and poses the question of whether the
findings can be generalised.
Exam practice (Jan 2011)
Essay structure
January 2011
Discuss the role of one or more factors that influence attitudes
to food (8 marks and 16 marks).
8 marks = AO1 description
16 marks = AO2 evaluation
Complete the essay structure in your booklet for this question.