dieting

AO1

heatherton and polivy proposed that dieting is a chain of linked events
dieting often begins in adolescence when individuals experience body dissatisfaction
they initially experience some success but long term weight loss is rare so they either give up or blame it on a personal deficiency
instead of rethinking, dieters ‘stick to the plan’ but eat even less
this greater restriction has physical and psychological effects
- the dieter is more vulnerable to disinhibited eating as a result of frustration and emotional distress
- metabolic processes change in the body so losing weight is harder
- ghrelin increase, leptin decrease = increase in appetite
- the result is further failure followed by more attempts to diet ‘harder’
this results in lower self esteem and increased depression so the individual is trapped in a destructive ‘downward spiral’

daniel wegner explained why people become more preoccupied with thoughts of food when trying to restrict intake - theory of ironic processes
conducted a study where people were asked not to think about a white bear and found that this almost guaranteed that people would think about one, more often when people were asked to think of one
this paradoxical outcome of trying to suppress a thought is to make it more likely
certain foods become ‘salient’ when a dieter labels them ‘forbidden’
there is further irony
- attempting to distract yourself requires mental capacity → less cognitive capacity to suppress thoughts about food → thoughts reappear

diets place restrictions on food intake
the person becomes more vulnerable to internal and external food-related cues
both spiral model and ironic processes theory suggests that the person becomes more susceptible to disinhibition
the dieter loses control and overeats so lose no more weight than someone who was not dieting and may even gain more

a strength of the spiral model is that it suggests how dieting can be successful and can inform dietary and nutritional plans
the model identifies the point at which the individual can break out the spiral
heatherton and polivy identified low self esteem as this point. people who diet to lose weight tend to have lower self esteem but this wasnt true for people who were avoiding putting on weight, who had higher self esteem
so one way in which dieting can be successful is if the person goes to therapy or receives some form of psychological support in order to increase their self esteem
therefore, the best way to promote dieting is to promote self esteem

a strength of ironic processes theory is that there is research support
adriaanse et al had ppts who were trying to cut down their intake of unhealthy snacks
they were presented with diet intentions, expressed negatively. after the ppts were exposed to these statements, they kept a snack diary.
the researchers found an ironic rebound effect, the ppts ate unhealthy snacks more often and consumed more calories than a control group
these findings suggest that thinking of oneself as dieting can lead to the failure of the diet
- CA - however, it is still unclear how far they can account for the success or failure of dieting. wegner himself accepted that the effects of the ironic processes are relatively small and short term. in many studies, including this one, the rebound effect is measured in just days or weeks but realistically, real world attempts at losing weight typically extend over a much longer period of time. this means that other factors, such as low self esteem as proposed by the spiral model, may play a more important role in determining diet success

one limitation of these theories is that they do not account for individual differences
ogden claims that these theories do not explain successful dieting in people who are still preoccupied with food
one explanation is locus of control. for example, internals believe that weight loss is contingent on their own efforts and they have control over their success or failure. externals do not believe they have control
therefore, the explanations on this spread cannot offer a general prediction of who is likely to fail or succeed in losing weight