Cognitive Theory Explanation of Anorexia Nervosa:

Distortions (Murphy et al):

Cognitive distortions are errors in thinking that cause the ind. to develop a negative body image

Anorexia sufferers have a disturbed perception of their own body e.g. seeing themselves as overweight when they are at a healthy body weight

Murphy et al found that other clinical features of anorexia stem from these distortions

This is bc it leads people to be critical of their own body/ see themself as overweight, engage in food restriction and obsess over body shape/ size

This is alleviated by using CBT-E (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy developed around eating disorders)

Attentional bias:

People with ana are biased and hyper attentive towards food related stimuli and info (e.g. calories) particularly around fattening food

This is done to avoid overeating and gaining weight

Irrational Belief:

Not based on facts and are unrealistic e.g. catastrophising (‘If i eat this apple, I will become fat) or ‘all or nothing’ thinking (‘I am either fat and ugly or attractive’)

Ind. develop self defeating habits due to faulty beliefs

This is because irrational beliefs lead to negative automatic thoughts about weight/ eating which leads to a development of anxiety and a desire to lose weight contributing to Ana

Cognitive Inflexibility:

Rigidity makes ind. more vulnerable to ana

Once they perceive themselves as overweight and start a weight loss process, they continue to perceive themselves as needing to lose more weight, even when they have lost the weight and there is no need for it anymore

Since they can not adapt their way of thinking, the weight loss continues until they have become ana

Strength of Attentional Bias - Support from stroop test studies (Ben-Tovim):

Ben-Tovim et al used a version of the Stroop test (the food stroop test) and discovered that compared to normal controls, patients with ana found it harder to colour-name words that were relevant to their weight concerns

Thus suggesting a selective preoccupation with those stimuli and words related to them

This shows that people with ana have an attentional focus on food related stimuli

This provides support for the role of attentional bias in ana, which leads to the avoidance of food and the prevention of weight gain

This improves the validity of the cognitive explanation of ana

Strength of CT - Support from success of therapy (Fairburn et al):

Cognitive behavioural therapy for eating disorders have shown positive results

Fairburn et al compared CBT-E with interpersonal psychotherapy, a leading alternative treatment that has no cognitive element

130 patients with an eating disorder were randomly assigned to either CBT-E or IPT

At the end of the 20 weeks treatment, 2/3 of the CBT- E ppts met the criteria for remission compared to just 1/3 of the IPT ppts

These findings demonstrate that CBT was the more effective treatment for ana and is based on addressing the cognitive causes of ana, therefore this reinforces the view that ana is caused by faulty cognitions e.g. cognitive distortions

This increases the validity of the cog exp of anorexia

Weakness of CT - Evidence it relies on is correlational:

We do not know if cognitive distortions cause anorexia or if anorexia causes cognitive distortions

If the former is true, then the cognitive explanation is validated, if the latter is true, then this invalidates the cog exp and so there may be an alternative exp to anorexia such as inheriting a faulty EPHX2 gene which could then lead to faulty cognitions

Since there is not a clear cause and effect relationship in the supporting evidence, this decreases the validity of the theory

Weakness of CT - Refuting evidence (Cornelissen et al):

Cornelissen et al compared ana patients with non ana patients on a morphing task where ppts had to adjust a computerised image of themselves until it matched their estimated body size

They found no significant differences between the groups of women in the accuracy of their estimates

This shows that there is no evidence for cognitive distortions in body image for people with ana as they were able to accurately estimate their body size compared to the control group

This challenges the key assumptions of cog exp, undermining its validity