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Flashcards by sammie_church, updated more than 1 year ago
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Created by sammie_church
about 8 years ago
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| Question | Answer |
| Psychological explanations of anorexia nervosa | By Samantha Church |
| Cognitive explanation According to the cognitive model, an individual with AN is someone who is preoccupied with the way he or she looks- or the way he or she thinks she looks. Those with AN perceive themselves as unattractive and overweight. | The cognitive model can explain why only some dieters develop AN, because we are all exposed to the same thinness model, but only those with faulty belief systems develop eating disorders, because they do not 'see' their excessive weight loss. |
| A01 GENERAL | Orimoto pointed out the kind of faulty cognitions that are typical in people with AN. For example, a common cognition is that dieting is a means of exerting self control, but at the same time most people with anorexia realise they are out of control because they cannot stop dieting even though they know it is threatening their lives. This is an example of maladaptive thinking. |
| A01 | Cognitive theories emphasise the thought processes of a person with an eating disorder i.e the over concern with the importance of body weight and shape. |
| A01 Perfectionism | Perfectionism, the concern for mistakes, is often found in individuals with AN and other eating disorders. Strober er al retrospectively evaluated personality traits in teenage boys and girls receiving treatment for AN. They found high levels of perfectionism in 73% of the girls and 50% of boys. |
| A02 Personality traits | There is research support for the idea of personality and cognitive variables influencing the likelihood of anorexia. Bardone-cone at al investigated the interaction of personality characteristics with the development of eating disorders. They found that a concern for body weight and body dissatisfaction were positively correlated with symptoms of eating disorders, but only when combined with high levels of perfectionism and low levels of self-efficacy. This suggests that cognitive variables and personality traits have a strong influence on the development of eating disorders, as the disorders will only develop when these traits are distorted. |
| AO2 SUPPORT- Halmi et al | The link between perfectionism and AN is supported by research by Halmi et al. He investigated the relationship between perfectionism and anorexia nervosa in 322 women with a history of AN across Europe and the US. The results of this study showed that those individuals who had a history of AN scored significantly higher on the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale when compared to a comparison group of healthy women. In addition, the extent of perfectionism was directly related to the severity of AN experienced by the women, which all shows the importance of the link between perfectionism and AN. |
| A02 SUPPORT-Halmi et al part 2 | Another part of the study by Hlami et al also supports the idea of perfectionism and AN. As part of the study, researchers included patients with relatives who also suffered from AN, and enlisted them for the study. The results of this study showed that perfectionism as a personality trait appears to run in families and therefore represents a genetic vulnerability for the development of AN. This therefore supports the cognitive approach and the link between perfectionism and AN. |
| A02 SUPPORT-Nilsson et al | A recent longitudinal study by Nilsson et al shows the importance of perfectionism in the duration of AN. Individuals who had short illness duration had lower levels of perfectionism, and those with high levels were more at risk of long illness duration, giving support for the factor of perfectionism for the cognitive approach of AN. |
| A02 Criticism | One criticism is that distorted cognitions may be an effect rather than a cause of AN, so the cognitive approach may be an inadequate explanation. |
| A02 SUPPORT | However, once an individual develops faulty cognitions, it can be seen how these would help to continue the disorder (even if they are an effect of the disorder rather than the cause) |
| A02 Methodological problems | The study of personality in AN is fraught with methodological problems. These include seperating out lasting personality traits from short-lived states that may be caused by starvation. In addition, there is a frequent reliance on clinically diagnosed samples, which represents a biased view of the relationship between personality and disordered eating. All of these methodological problem may therefore affect the validity of the support for the cognitive approach and the idea of perfectionism. |
| A03 Real world application | A strength of the cognitive approach is that it has the potential to lead to useful therapies being developed. This will enable clients to tackle self-defeating statements and therefore start eating again. |
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