1. Cognitive APPROCH TO EATING DISRODER
Anorexia and Bulimia

2. Examples of distortions include : Examples of errors in thinking are:
The cognitive explanation of Anorexia nervosa states that the disorder is a result of defective and maladaptive thought process about the self, the body and food/eating.
The faulty thinking process can be down to either distortions or errors in thinking.
Examples of distortions include :
Misconceptions of the body – being overweight when in fact it is underweight
Basing feelings on self appearance
Making flawed beliefs about eating and dieting behaviour
Examples of errors in thinking are:
Polarized thinking – e.g. “I ate one slice of chocolate cake … I ruined all my hard work

3. Magical Thinking – My life would be perfect if I was size 8
Overgeneralising- If I can’t control my diet I ‘am going to fail in life as a whole

4. Studies
Fallon and Rozin (1985) showed male and female students a series of body silhouette pictures of increasing size and asked them to rate:
Their current body shape ‘current’
Their ideal body shape ‘ideal’
The body shape that the other sex would find most
attractive (‘other-attractive’)

5. The results of the test found that :
Men rated ‘current’ and ‘ideal’ very closely
Men rated ‘other attractiveness’ as smaller than ‘current’ and ‘ideal’
Women rated ‘other attractiveness’ as significantly smaller than ‘current’ and ‘ideal’
Women rated ‘ideal’ as smaller that ‘current’ and ‘other attractive’
This study suggests that both men and woman believe that others would find them more attractive if they were thinner and woman would ideally would want to be thinner.

6. Another Study
McKenzie et al (1993) interviewed female eating disorder patients and a control group about their body weight, shape
and ideals, and got them to estimate their own size in relation to other women. They found that:
When asked to compare themselves with the control group who were the same size the eating disorder patients tend to overestimate their own body weight
When they were asked their ideal bodyweight/shape, ED patients chose a weight/shape significantly lighter/thinner that the control group
Following a sugary snack, they judged their body size to have increased. Controls did not.

7. Evaluation
Women are generally more dissatisfied than men with their bodies
ED patients misperceive their own bodies and have more unrealistic body ideals
In ED patients, minor events related to eating cause a fear of weight gain
However the explanation does not prove what causes ED
The cognitive explanations states the obvious, in this case people who suffer with anorexia see themselves as overweight when they are under weight
People who are clinically ‘normal’ also think irrationally - so what's the difference between ‘normal’ people who think irrationally and sufferers of anorexia?

8. McKenzie only used female participants making it gender biased
However both studies have their own critics when analysing eating disorders :
Fallon and Rozin only used students who didn’t have an eating disorder which means its not representative.
McKenzie only used female participants making it gender biased
The topic can be socially sensitive to the participants which may influence their mind-set when taking part in the research (particularly in McKenzie's research were they had to eat a chocolate bar)
However due to their controlled environments both studies possess high reliability
And both studies could lead to a solution in dealing with patients with Anorexia

9. Cognitive Approach to Bulimia
There are three parts to the cognitive approach to bulimia:
Developmental factors – Cooper et al (2004) believed that sufferers of bulimia had experience trauma and as a result see themselves as outcasts in contrast to everyone else so they diet to become thin to be more acceptable to those around them
Maintenance- Cooper describes as the ‘vicious cycle’. Bulimia sufferers seek happiness by binge eating and then purge due to their guilt making them feel worse. Then they repeat the cycle to binge to restart their happiness.
Functional - Polivy et al. (1994) suggested binge eating was a way to cope with identity problems

10. Research Studies
Bowlby's (1969,1973,1980) attachment theory investigates the links between adult attachment styles within close relationships, bulimia, dietary restraint, and relationship satisfaction.
120 female participants aged between 18 to 45 years were recruited from the University of Canterbury campus, and administered three to four brief questionnaires
Results found that women with bulimia who were currently involved in romantic relationships were significantly more anxiously attached, more likely to engage in dieting behaviour and report low levels of satisfaction within their relationships

11. However there are limitations to this research study:
This study was only conducted it with female participants without generalizing it with the wider population
It was done with a small sample size making the findings quite limited
Participant biases and selection affects might have affected the research
For example, the researcher approached many potential participants in a face-to-face manner. Those who refused participation in this study, may have been characteristically different from individuals who agreed to participate.
Also the relationship process only proves a correlations and doesn’t conclude the cause. So its not certain that trying to change your appearance for someone else is the cause of Bulimia Nervosa!!!

12. http://thetruthaboutanorexia. blogspot. co