Date Available
12-7-2011
Year of Publication
2006
Document Type
Thesis
College
Arts and Sciences
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Gregory T. Smith
Abstract
Eating disorder expectancy theory proposes a causal role for expectancies for reinforcement from thinness. The authors conducted an experimental test of that hypothesis. Undergraduate college women (N = 154) were randomized to either a psychoeducational control of proven effectiveness or an experimental manipulation of thinness and restricting expectancies. Participants in each condition attended three experimental sessions and one, follow-up session, each one week apart. For both groups, body dissatisfaction, disordered eating, purging frequency, and binge eating frequency declined over the course of the study. In addition, the thinness expectancy manipulation produced greater declines in thinness expectancies, body dissatisfaction, and purging behavior than the psychoeducational manipulation. These results provide further support for the role of expectancies in the etiology of eating disordered behaviors.
Recommended Citation
Annus, Agnes M., "MANIPULATION OF THINNESS AND RESTRICTING EXPECTANCIES: FURTHER EVIDENCE FOR A CAUSAL ROLE OF THINNESS AND RESTRICTING EXPECTANCIES IN THE ETIOLOGY OF EATING DISORDERS" (2006). University of Kentucky Master's Theses. 395.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/gradschool_theses/395
