Responding to strong indications in the research that anorexia and bulimia are reaching epidemic proportions in many Westernized nations, including the United States, Paul Garfinkel and David Garner have proposed a three-part model which implicates individual, familial, and sociocultural factors in the development of these multidetermined disorders. The present study uses Garfinkel and Garner's model to investigate factors related to the existence of an eating disorder in women between the ages of 18 and 38. Three groups of subjects were used in the study: an eating-disordered group (bulimics and anorexic bulimics; 18 women), a normal control group (26 women), and a second, depressed control group (24 women). The hypothesis that eating-disordered women were more impaired than normal controls, as measured by individual, familial, and socio-cultural factors, was largely supported, with the exception of the Bem Sex Role Inventory (socio-cultural measure), where little difference was found between groups. The hypothesis that depressed women would look healthier than women with an eating disorder but more dysfunctional than the normal controls was not supported; depressed women tended to look very much like bulimics and anorexic bulimics on the measures used in this study. Further exploration of socio-cultural factors by measures other than the Bem Sex Role Inventory, as well as further investigation of additional similarities--and differences--between depressed women and eating-disordered women would suggest more specific treatment strategies as well as possible prevention techniques for women afflicted by or at risk for an eating disorder.

There has been a growing interest in eating disorders among Singaporean medical professionals since the 1990s, and the Singaporean public is also starting to become aware of the risks of these conditions. This ethnographic research on eating disorders in Singapore, conducted in 2001, however, found that the majority of the informants with these conditions have struggled with a lack of understanding from others. This thesis aims to increase understanding by bringing these under-represented sufferers' voices to the forefront. This thesis focuses on the immense fear and guilt about gaining weight that are shared by these individuals. Unlike medical science, which usually considers such fear and guilt to be pathological, this thesis looks at these emotions as cultural by using the anthropological theory of feelings as well as the theory of the body politic. By illustrating how thinness has become an ideal image for Singaporean women in the past twenty years, cultural components of these feelings become readable to those without eating disorders. This thesis recommends two ways to increase understanding of the informants' inner struggles. First, medical science should consider culture a possible cause of eating disorders, since the exclusion of culture from the etiology legitimizes a lack of understanding on the part of those without eating disorders. Secondly, instead of asserting that appearance is unimportant, those without eating disorders should acknowledge that appearance plays an important role in human lives across every culture. Furthermore, they need to understand that while society superficially encourages people to accept themselves as they are, it stigmatizes fatness more forcefully. Lastly, they need to consider that the dieting industry often exploits medical science to justify its image of the ideal female body. / Graduation date: 2003

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 137-162). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2002. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains v, 46 p. : ill. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 44-46).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 117-129). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--York University, 1999. Graduate Programme in Education. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [156]-162). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pMQ43365.

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Clinical Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, June, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 131-146)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, Dec., 2008. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Counseling Psychology and Special Education, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 29-33).