(855) 4-ESSAYS

Type a new keyword(s) and press Enter to search

Psychology - Eating Disorders

            Eating disorders have taken over many young adolescents lives, mostly young girls and younger women. Western cultures food is abundant and the eating disorder rates are thriving. Large amounts of people are obese, and many suffering from binge eating. On the contrary, many adolescents suffer from anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. The following essay researches the importance of sociocultural and environmental influences, as to whether such contributions are the most significant or go hand in hand with biological factors in the development of eating disorders. Causation factors are also researched on society's everyday norm of dieting and over-consumption of readily available food. To analyze and understand the significance of each factor and possible correlations, research in scholarly literature as well as documentaries have been acknowledged. Needless to say, researchers have concluded that it is rather difficult to periodically perform studies on groups suffering from eating disorders because individuals are in denial of the psychiatric illness they are suffering from. However, the literature researched had commenced studies and had conclusive repertoires of compared literature from the authors and the authors before them. .
             Introduction.
             Beauty comes in all shapes and sizes throughout the world. Western cultures have favored the same views and beliefs on the perfect image. In the late twentieth century people steered away from the gracious full-bodied image that symbolized beauty and adopted an opposite viewpoint that would be known as today's symbol for the perfect body type. Society creates a glamorized perception of ideal body types that symbolically relate to success and power through mass media. This creates an emphasized thin body type along with everyday dieting norms that would be embraced by majority of society. Obsessive dieting and yearning to match the ideal body type leads to abnormal eating habits and eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa among vulnerable personality types as well as young adolescents and athletes.


Essays Related to Psychology - Eating Disorders

1. Eating Disorders

... and a culture in which there is an over abundance of food and an obsession with thinness. Eating disorders are generally characterized as bulimia nervosa, anorexia nervosa and eating disorders not other wise specified. According to the World of Psychology anorexia is defined as " an eating disorder characterized by an overwhelming, irrational fear of being fat, compulsive dieting to the point of self ... starvation and excessive weight loss."(World of Psychology Page 317). There are some causes, symptoms, complications and treatment ... component in food that is essential to the produc...

  • Word Count: 1216
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

2. The Obsessive Media - Causing Eating Disorders

... of these girls had not history of eating disorders in their family, so it seems that the media was the main cause of both of their disorders. Researchers from the other side of this argument states that the media cannot cause eating disorders because they are a genetic disease. Michal Levine, a professor in the department of psychology at Kenyon College, states that many clinicians ... say that eating disorders are a chronic disorder with a genetic basis and the media plays ... a much smaller role than both of those. However, the author of "Media's Influence on Eating Disorders" states ...

  • Word Count: 2262
  • Approx Pages: 9
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

3. Eating Disorders and Alcohaulism

... rate of eating disorders because there is an extremely large focus on the weight of the athletes. "They are obsessively convinced that less fat equals more fitness," as said by John Bryant, author of "Body Image Produces a Distorted Picture. This unhealthy way of thinking can be linked to a few different fields of psychology: clinical psychology, health psychology, and sports psychology. Clinical because ... this can be used to identify the disorder and determine the reason for the eating disorder. Health psychology can also be used to link the misconceptions of the athletes of how to ma...

  • Word Count: 519
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

4. treatment of eating disorders

... ). Family therapy for adolescent anorexia nervosa. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 6, 730-735. Nash, M. (1996). Conference on adolescent nutritional disorders: prevention and treatment. Nutrition-Today,31, 68-70. Neumark, D. (1995). Excessive weight preoccupation. Nutrition-Today, 30,68. Spangler, D. (1999). Cognitive behavioral therapy for bulimia nervosa. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 6, 705-713. Thub, D. (1994). Disordered eating and weight control among adolescent female athletes and performing ... squad members. Journal of Adolescent Research, 52,21. Walsh, B. (1998). Eating...

  • Word Count: 1219
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Eating disorders

... which has taken so much of the joy out of an otherwise wonderful life. What are eating disorders? The three most common forms of eating disorders are Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia and Binge eating disorder, but eating disorders are not just the extremes of Anorexia, Bulimia and Binge eating. Dangerous eating practices like the use of diet pills, laxatives and diuretics, and extreme fad diets, ... the poor inhabitants. City living is a risk factor for bulimia but not for anorexia. In one test people with eating disorders scored significantly higher on IQ tests than those without such disorde...

  • Word Count: 4478
  • Approx Pages: 18
  • Has Bibliography

6. Athlete Eating Disorders

... the study "indicated that athletes at higher levels of competition showed more signs of pathological eating and were at an increased risk for the development of eating disorders" (Picard 583). The psychology make-up of athletes has also been thought to play a major role in the development of eating disorders. Athletes possess personality characteristics that put them at increased risk of developing an ... eating disorder. Their strive for perfection has drawn a fine line between optimal competitive attitudes ... and personality characteristics and differences between high and low perfect...

  • Word Count: 2101
  • Approx Pages: 8
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

7. Overview of Abnormal Psychology

... system. This system contain five (5) axes of information, provided to help organize mental disorders and help clinicians assign diagnoses, plan treatment and predict outcome. (i) Axis I Major clinical disorder that often emerges and ends in the life cycle. This may include anxiety, somatoform, and dissociative, mood, eating, substance use, psychosexual, psychotic, disruptive, and cognitive factors. (ii) Axis ... II This refers to disorders that are lifelong in nature; this includes mental retardation and personality disorders. (iii) Axis III This axis pertains to the medical conditions r...

  • Word Count: 1807
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

8. The Causes Of Eating Disorders: A Socio-cultural Perspective

... the huge increase in reported symptoms of destructive eating behavior (Wegner, Hartmann, & Geist, 2000). It is no secret that the "Western Ideal- of body image, although unrealistic for the average person, may in fact be a major influence in the misconceptions which cause such syndromes. Even to a person not educated in the fields of psychology or nutrition, it seems unlikely to be ... of societal ideals, and it is no surprise that oftentimes, individuals use them as paradigms for which to compare their own appearances. In addressing gender differences between the prevalence of eating di...

  • Word Count: 2303
  • Approx Pages: 9
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

9. Eating Disorders

... ashamed that 15% of children between the ages of 6 and 19 are obese. I wanted to look at how my background helped me to overcome biological and emotional factors that trigger eating disorders and food obsessions. What perceptions and views did I have that Marya , my roommate, cousin and many other women I read about not have through childhood, school age, college and adulthood? Why ... so she could be taken care of by her parents. In the book Wasted Marya wrote about a study that is based on the assumption that there is a biological basis for eating disorders. A study was done with a gr...

  • Word Count: 2483
  • Approx Pages: 10
  • Grade Level: High School

Got a writing question? Ask our professional writer!
Submit My Question