Cognitive explanations for AN

Diapositiva 1

• Research support for cognitive distortions
• CD - faulty, biased and irrational ways of thinking which mean we perceive ourselves, other people and the world around us inaccurately and negatively
• Support means that the research has concluded that this is what cognitive distortions means. This could be through a study where the results matched the definition.
• If an explanation is supported by research it has a real-world application and also a good level of external validity

Cognitive distortions in AN patients

• FMRI was used with AN patients/compared with healthy control participants
• Shown images of bodies during brain scan
• When both groups looked at other people's bodies, the same area of the brain was activated
• BUT when showed their own bodies, the AN patients had very little activation in these brain areas (attention)
• This suggests cognitive distortions do exist in AN individuals
• However it only covers the 'one's self'' and not perception on others around us which is what the cognitive theory also focuses on.
• Improves validity of explanation = well founded

Perfectionism linked to AN

• Research support for perfectionism (a part of irrational beliefs)
• The view that the individual has to meet their most demanding standards all the time and if they don't, they will be judged.
• 728 women over the age of 16 years with AN
• They all completed the EATATE Lifetime Diagnostic Interview which measures the symptoms of AN & indicators of perfectionism in childhood
• They found that perfectionism was a predictor of the later development of AN (potential risk factor - link back to A01 point)
• However, the measure was retrospective meaning participants had to think back to their childhood and recall incidents of perfectionism. Likely to be distorted
• This means the link could be artificial and so is only partly valid

Perceptions are not pathological

• Contradictory research (challenges body image distortion)
• AN patients were compared with non-AN women on a morphing task
• Adjust a computerised image of themselves until it matched their estimate body size (down to perception)
• However the researcher found that there was no significant differences between the groups of women in their accuracy of their estimates
• Overestimation is therefore not pathological (related to a mental illness)
• This finding challenges the central role of body image distortion in cognitive theories
• However this itself is challenged by recent reviews of research which conclude that body image distortion is a genuine characteristic of AN. They attributed the differences to the measurement techniques used.

Features or cause?

• Research shows that distortions and irrational beliefs are features of AN. But it's not very clear if they cause the disorder. There is little evidence to show that they exist before the onset of AN.
• Younger AN patients were no worse at switching from one task to another than non-anorexic controls. Older patients were though. Suggests cognitive inflexibility does not make a person vulnerable to developing AN, but could instead be a consequence.
• Can't account for direction of causality= Low internal validity