Eating Behaviour

Social Learning Theory

Emphases the impact that observing other people has on our own attitudes and behaviour

Research which supports SLT which is worth looking at is : Meyer and Gast and Birch and Fisher.

Parental modelling- One way in which children acquire their attitudes and behaviour towards food is by observing their parents attitudes and behaviours.

Parents decide what foods to feed their children, therefore their attitudes to food are then passed onto their children.

Brown and Ogden (2004)- reported consistent correlations between parents and their children in terms of snack food intake, eating motivations and bodily dissatisfaction 

The media also has effect on the attitudes to eating for example, Television, Magazines and the internet.

Maclntyre et al (1998) found that the media has an impact on what people eat and also their attitudes to eating certain foods.

Ethnicity

Eating concerns and disorders such as Bulimia Nervosa are more likely to appear in white women as oppose to black or Asian women. (Powell and Khan, 1995)

X- However Mumford et al found that Bulimia Nervosa was in fact more common among Asian Schoolgirls. 

Social Class

Dissatisfaction in body image is more commonly known to affect higher class individuals. Dornbush et al- surveyed 7000 American adolescents and found that those who wanted to be thin were those of a higher class.

Binge-eating

Those who suffer from Bulimia Nervosa are shown to suffer from anxiety prior to a binge.

Research has shown that one hour before a binge bulimic individuals had more negative mood states than one hour before a normal meal or snack.

Comfort-eating

Eating junk food when feeling low.

Garg et al (2007) study- Observed food choice of 38 participants as they watched either an upbeat film or a sad film. 

- Participants were offered either popcorn and seedless grapes throughout the film

-Those watching the sad film has 36% more popcorn than those watching the happy film.

- The upbeat film group consumed more grapes than the others.

Garge et al therefore claimed that people who may feel down want to bring their mood up so therefore go for snacks which taste good and give them a rush of euphoria.