Eating%20Disorders

1
Eating Disorders
www.psychlotron.org.uk

• Cognitive model
• Psychological disorders are the result of faulty
  or maladaptive thinking processes
• Anorexia and bulimia may involve misperception of
  the body
• They will also involve faulty reasoning about the
  self, the body and food/eating

2
Cognitive Distortions in EDs
www.psychlotron.org.uk

• Faulty thinking in EDS typically includes
• Misperceiving the body as overweight when it is
  actually underweight
• Basing feelings of self worth unduly on physical
  appearance
• Basing sense of self on control over eating/ED
  symptoms
• Irrational/mistaken beliefs about
  food/fat/dieting behaviours

3
Cognitive Errors in EDs
www.psychlotron.org.uk

• All or nothing thinking
• I ate one biscuitthats blown everything!
• Overgeneralising
• If I fail at controlling my eating I fail in
  life.
• Magnifying/minimising
• My weight loss isnt serious.
• Magical thinking
• If I reach size 8 then my life will be perfect.

4
Cognitive Errors in EDs
www.psychlotron.org.uk

• Fallon Rozin (1985)
• Male female students rated themselves on
  current and ideal body shape
• Compared to males, females rated themselves as
  heavier than what was attractive, and much
  heavier than their ideal

5
Cognitive Errors in EDs
www.psychlotron.org.uk

• McKenzie et al (1993)
• Female ED patients overestimated their own body
  size in relation to other women
• They judged their ideal weight to be lower than
  comparable non-ED patients
• Following a sugary snack, they judged their body
  size to have increased. Controls did not.

6
Cognitive Errors in EDs
www.psychlotron.org.uk

• 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
  activate fear of weight gain

7
The Cognitive Model
www.psychlotron.org.uk

• AN and BN are certainly associated with biases
  and distortions in thinking
• However, most women are dissatisfied with their
  bodies, not all of them develop EDs
• A good account of what helps to maintain EDS, but
  not of what causes them in the first place.