Key Issue Essay - Is the media to blame for the rise in Anorexia Nervosa?

Introduction

• Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that may affect up to 5% of girls and young women in the UK. Symptoms include extreme weight loss for no discernible medical reason, amenorrhoea, denying hunger or exercising excessively 

• AN is a serious disorder which can lead to death (8% die within 5 years). It is important for society to begin to tackle this issue, as there is a huge cost to families of sufferers, sufferers themselves and a strain on the NHS to provide enough support  

• It is important for us to understand whether the media does influence anorexia, as the media is something we are able to control - society has a moral responsibility and obligation to solve this problem, and could go about this by introducing age restrictions on media (almost like the watershed) etc 

Social Learning theory

• The number of under-19s hospitalised for eating disorders such as anorexia has tripled in the last ten years. This increase has been blamed on increased exposure to celebrity culture through use of mobile phones and social media – particularly photo-sharing apps that have made users more body conscious.

• Social Learning Theory suggests behaviour must be modelled, and carried out by a role model to the observer. It is necessary that the observer must identify with the role model, and this is normally because they are similar in some way – showed in Bandura’s Bobo Doll study results where the role model had the highest level of direct imitation when they were the same gender as the child.

• This suggests therefore that young women will identify with female models or celebrities due to a shared gender, and become motivated to become similar to them as they have an appealing social status and high likeability that the girls themselves wish to obtain.  Therefore, they may be more likely to imitate this behaviour of being slim, and choose to start eating less.

• This theory is backed by evidence from Bandura’s Bobo Doll study variation in 1963, where his sample was split in half – with one group receiving a live demonstration from an aggressive role model, and the other group receiving the same demonstration but videoed on a screen. The results were similar across both groups, providing a clear demonstration that observational learning can occur just as effectively through the media as in person.

• However, whilst this theory is good at explaining how girls are influenced to start eating less to appear more like the models within the media, it is too reductionist to explain when this desire to become thinner progresses beyond the size of the model into a severe chronic obsession with food. Characteristics of anorexia nervosa involve a severely unhealthy BMI and other illness associated, which cannot be explained by influence of a role model, as the role models in the media are not anorexic, and do not appear unhealthy. This is therefore a reductionist approach to a complex matter 

Operant conditioning

• Operant theory is also a good explanation for the impact of the media upon the prevalence of AN, primarily through reinforcement or punishment. Reinforcement is used to ensure that a behaviour happens again, and can be positive when something is added to a situation, and negative when something is taken away from a situation.

• Role models in the media receive positive reinforcement in the form of ‘likes’ or flattering comments on social media platforms, and the girls observing this will be vicariously reinforced, thus associating being slim and attractive with being rewarded.

• Punishment is used to ensure that bad behaviour does not happen again. Positive punishment in the media is when those that remain overweight are criticised or ridiculed due to their size, and an example of this would be Susan Boyle on Britain’s Got Talent, where the audience openly laughed when she appeared on stage and even judge Simon Cow had to admit afterwards that his ‘first impressions were completely overturned.’

• This positive punishment from the media for being overweight would vicariously reinforce young girls that being a larger body type results in discrimination and prejudice, thus encouraging them to monitor their eating habits, which could lead to anorexia.

• Data from Becker’s study on teenage girls in Fiji found that following the introduction of TV to Fiji, key indicators of eating disorders were significantly more prevalent than before – with 74% of them saying they felt ‘too big or fat’ when they had not said this before. This exposes the direct influence of the media on girls, particularly how it can induce conditions such as anorexia nervosa 

Classical conditioning

• Classical conditioning is learning through association  
  UCS – Online media comments that are derogatory about weight 
  UCR – Fear of being outcast or viewed in a negative lens due to weight 
  NS – The girl’s own weight and eating habits 
  CS – Any stimulus involving her weight or eating experience 
  CR – Fear of food, not eating 
  

• However, classical conditioning is not a complete model as it does not take into account any biological factors affecting the condition