Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Recreation Management and Youth Leadership, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references.

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.

The serious consequences and high prevalence rates of eating disorders among women have been well documented (American Psychiatric Association, 2000; Birmingham, Su, Hlynasky, Goldner, & Gao, 2005; Crow, Praus, & Thuras, 1999; Steinhausen, 2009). Factors linked to the development of an eating disorder include competitiveness and group membership (Basow, Foran ,& Bookwala, 2007; Striegel-Moore, Silberstein, Grunberg, & Rodin, 1990). The purpose of this study was to further examine risk factors associated with eating disorder symptomatology by examining the role of sorority membership, different forms of competition, and relational aggression. Sorority membership was hypothesized to impact a participant’s eating disorder symptomatology, competitiveness, and relational aggression. Additionally, this study looked at three different forms of competition (Hypercompetition, Female Competition for mates, and Female Competition for status) and sought to understand which form of competitiveness best predicts eating disorder symptomatology. Female Competition for mates was hypothesized to best predict disordered eating. Lastly, relational aggression was expected to moderate the relationship between competition among women and eating disorder behaviors. An increase in relational aggression was hypothesized to strengthen the relationship between competition among women and eating disorder symptomatology. The reasoning for this relationship was based on an evolutionary framework that proposes aggression is needed to drive competition (Shuster, 1983). Participants included 407 undergraduate women, with a split of 211 sorority members and 196 non-sorority women. Measures included four subscales from the Eating Disorder Inventory (Garner et al., 1983), the Hypercompetitive Attitudes Scale (Ryckman et al., 1996), the Female Competition for mates scale, the Female Competition for status scale (Faer et al., 2005), and the Indirect Aggression Scale (Forrest et al., 2005). Separate regression analyses were conducted to answer each research question. Participants also answered qualitative questions after completing the surveys. Analyses revealed sorority membership significantly predicted a participant’s Female Competition for status. Female Competition for mates was found to best predict both body dissatisfaction and drive for thinness such that the higher a participant’s competition for mates score, the lower these eating disorder symptoms. No moderating effects of relational aggression were found in the model. Additionally, social desirability was included in the regressions as a means of controlling for a participant’s tendency to self-report desirably. An important surprise finding was that social desirability was a significant predictor of eating disorder symptomatology, competition, and relational aggression. Exploratory qualitative analyses suggested women’s acceptance of their bodies, while their conversations with friends included self-deprecating ways of discussing their appearance. Findings also suggest sorority membership predicts higher female competition for mates and status. Results reveal a relationship between competition and disordered eating which suggests important considerations for clinicians to explore with clients who may experience eating disorder symptomatology. / text

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

The aim of the work is to ascertain level and variety of teenagers having eating behaviour problems and emotional problems. In order to achieve this aim we have raised these main objectives: to select teenagers, having eating problems, to evaluate the level of and variety of teenagers, having eating behaviour problems and emotional problems, to evaluate the anxiety level and variety of teenagers having eating problems. In the beginning of the research hypotheses were raised that teenagers’ emotional problems are characteristic to the teenagers having eating problems, also we assumed stronger feelings of anxiety are characteristic to teenagers having eating problems. It is supposed that behaviour problems are characteristic to teenagers having eating behaviour problems. The research was carried out applying these research methods: B. questionnaire, compiled by Ziolkowska, standardised questionnaire by Achenbach – Your Self – Report; 2001 version (YRS) and standardised MASC scale for children. 206 pupils participated in the research. The results were analyzed with reference to record data of 173 pupils. Having carried out the research we found out that teenagers having eating problems experience more behaviour and emotional difficulties than teenagers who do not have such problems. The teenagers having eating problems consider their behaviour and emotions as more difficult to control: they experience bigger feeling of anxiety, have more fears, are inclined to opt out the social... [to full text]

Previous research exploring the relationship between muscle dysmorphia, drive for muscularity, and disordered eating behaviors in relation to personality characteristics, particularly narcissism, has yielded interesting, though often conflictual, results. The current study attempts to further explore these relationships through assessing muscle dysmorphia, drive for muscularity, and disordered eating in relation different facets of narcissism: grandiose and hypersensitive. Participants for the current study included 173 male students that were recruited via departmental Study Board. Participants completed demographic information, the Narcissistic Personality Inventory-40, the Hypersensitive Narcissism Scale, the Muscle Dysmorphia Questionnaire, the Drive for Muscularity Scale, and the Eating Attitudes Test-26. Results were indicative of a positive relationship between muscle dysmorphia symptomotology and hypersensitive narcissism, as well as positive relationships between drive for muscularity and facets of grandiose narcissism. Results also indicated that disordered eating, as an individual construct, was not related to narcissism. Results provide direction for the further study of the dimensional structure of the construct of narcissism, as well treatment implications for those suffering from muscle dysmorphia.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship, frequency, gender differences, situations and motivations of self-induced vomiting after drinking alcohol with disordered eating, alcohol use and psychopathology; with a nonclinical university sample of males and females in New Zealand. Participants were 102 male and 159 female university students ranging in age from 17-35 years who completed a survey designed for this study along with tests that measure eating disordered attitudes and behaviours, bulimia symptoms, depression and alcohol use. Overall, 90.04% of the sample reported that they drink alcohol and, of that subset, 57.58% of males and 42.26% of females reported having self-induced vomiting after drinking alcohol. The behaviour was related to eating pathology, depression and alcohol use with gender differences apparent. Specifically, on measures of disordered eating, females who self-induce vomiting after drinking alcohol scored higher than females who do not report the behaviour (no difference apparent for males), and overall, females scored higher than males. In terms of hazardous alcohol use, males who self-induce vomiting after drinking alcohol scored higher than males who do not with the same true for females, and overall males scored higher than females. In terms of drinking at the dependency level, individuals who reported self-induced vomiting after drinking alcohol drink at a more harmful level than those who do not (both males and females) and more males than females reported hazardous alcohol usage rates. When examining depressed symptoms, females who selfinduce vomiting after drinking alcohol reported more depressed symptoms than females who do not, with males who reported the behaviour endorsing less depressed symptoms than males who do not. Overall, females indicated more depressed symptoms than males. Persons who engaged in the behaviour were more likely to endorse it as being acceptable, with this trend being stronger for males. Females who self-induce vomiting after drinking were more likely to endorse symptoms of anorexia, bulimia and depression, whereas males who reported the behaviour were more likely to indicate harmful drinking levels, and perform the behaviour to carry on drinking. Thus, for males, self-induced vomiting after drinking alcohol was related to substance abuse whereas, for females, the behaviour may be more related to disordered eating.

Facial expressions can be reliable markers of emotion, and represent an important source of social information. Consequently, the ability to judge facial expressions accurately is essential for successful interpersonal interactions. Anorexia nervosa (AN) is an eating disorder in which social difficulties are common. Past research has suggested that facial emotion recognition may be disturbed in AN, although the precise nature of this disturbance is unclear. The current study aimed to further investigate emotion recognition in AN by comparing 12 women with AN to 21 women who were constitutionally thin (CT) on the Facial Expression Recognition Test, an established computerized test of facial emotion recognition. Still photographs of faces displaying different emotional expressions and neutral expressions were presented to participants via computer screen. Participants were required to decide which emotion each face displayed from several choices. AN subjects responded faster than CT subjects to the facial emotion stimuli, regardless of which emotion was displayed. However, AN subjects did not differ from CT subjects on overall accuracy, accuracy for different emotion categories or misclassifications. Results are discussed in terms of the cognitive style of individuals with AN, recent models of socio-emotional processing, and issues of methodology.

Eating disorders are defined by a complex interaction between emotional, cognitive and interpersonal challenges in addition to behaviours used to control weight or shape. One of the major challenges with the treatment of eating disorders is ambivalence, low motivation to engage in treatment, and a high treatment dropout rate. Motivational Interviewing is a therapeutic style that elicits intrinsic motivation from within the patient to drive behaviour change. The current study provides an evaluation of the effectiveness of the two pretreatment group motivation interventions delivered by the South Island Eating Disorder Service. Significant changes in motivational stage of change were observed in both the Motivation and Education Group and the pure Motivation Group. Significant improvements in patient readiness, confidence and importance to change as well as treatment attendance were identified in the pure Motivation Group. Recommendations for future treatment development are presented.