Clincal Psychology Anorexia

Question 1

What are some rates of Anorexia?

Answer 1

Over 1.26 million people in UK are directly effected by eating disorders

Onset of anorexia is often during adolescence or early childhood and coincides with major life stressor like changing schools or bullying

Question 2

What are some gender stats of Anorexia?

Answer 2

Women in western cultures are 10x more likely to develop anorexia than males

WHO says around 25% of anorexia patients are male

Question 3

What are some life expectancy stats of Anorexia?

Answer 3

Aeound 1:20 die of the disorder with 1:5 committing suicide- highest morbidity rates of all mental health disorders s

Higher mortality rates are due to effect the disorder has on body over long term

Question 4

What are the 3 criterion of symptoms of anorexia?

Answer 4

Criterion A: restriction of food intake: Deliberate weight loss below what is expected for that age and heigh (below 17.5 in an adult

Criterion B: intense fear of gaining weight:
obsession of checking calories of all foods, lie about how much they eat, obsessive exercise to stop weight gain

Criterion C: distorted body image:
Don’t perceive themselves same way as others, grossly overestimate body weight, cannot accept severity of own body weight

Question 5

What does biological explanation of anorexia say about the hypothalamus?

Answer 5

Regulates eating and malfunction of it can explain avoidance of food and binge eating due it it controlling appetite

Also controls feeling and reasoning so can lead to AN patient feeling happy when they lose weight

Sends signals to areas of brain to tell us we hungry

Question 6

What does biological explanation of anorexia say about ghrelin?

Answer 6

It is produced in stomach when hungry so they rise before a meal and decrease afterwords and signals to hypothalamus when we full

In AN patients, ghrelin levels elavated as they starving so when they eat levels drop which explains why it hard to put in weight as hunger signals not working

If ghrelin can’t bind to hypothalamus due to brain lesions- could cause them to stop eating

Question 7

What does biological explanation of anorexia say about Leptin?

Answer 7

Leptin is produced in adipose (fatty tissue and travels through blood to brain, signals to hypothalamus we full

AN patients have high Leptin cause they staving so when they eat small amount Leptin is produced making them feel full

Question 8

What are 3 strengths of the biological explanation of AN nervosa

Answer 8

Quaade found lesions of lateral hypothalamus of obese patients reduced eating behaviour and if it stimulated electrically they feel hungry, supports idea LH is involved in eating beh

Anand found damage to lateral hypothalamus led to patients not eating as body didn’t feel hunger which explain avoidance beh of eating in AN patients

Reductionist as only focuses on biology as an exp for sz so useful as can predict AN behaviour and give treatments

Question 9

What does the social learning theory of anorexia state?

Answer 9

In western world AN happend due to influence of media portraying male and female role models as “thin is beautiful”

Magazines have 0 size USA models to advertise clothing and affects the ideal body size of women

SLT suggests symptoms of AN learnt thirught observation and imitation of role models leading to vicarious reinforcement

Influences young peoples view due to seeing think models being rewarded with money and careers making them think they can do that by being thin

Question 10

What are 3 strengths of social learning explanation of anorexia?

Answer 10

Sui-Wah found AN is rare in black populations in the west and non western cultures as being slim not viewed as attractive so diff types of role models

Becker, 1995 0% of Fijian girls said they vomited to control weight but by 1998 after TV they did

Willemsen, found women from carribean culture put on weight to feel attractive as “big is beautiful” but when in Netherlands lost weight to fit in with new idea of what is attractive leading to development of AN

Question 11

What are 3 weaknesses of social learning explanation of anorexia?

Answer 11

Yager case study of 28 year old blind women who had AN for 7 years, suggests observing and imitation not full exp of how AN develops

Quaade, lesions on lateral hypothalamus reduced eating beh and if they were stimulated they felt hungry supporting idea LH involved in eating beh and not SLT

Watson and Rayner, little Albert associated loud noise with rat and not through observation and imitation so AN may be due to classical conditiong rather than SLT

Question 12

What are 3 weaknesses of the biological explanation of AN nervosa

Answer 12

Becker found vomiting to control weight went from 0% to 11% after TV so SLT not hormones

Ignores individual differences like social media or upbringing so dysfunction of hypothalamus not only explanation

Watson and Rayner, little Albert associated loud noise with rat and not through observation and imitation so AN may be due to classical conditiong rather than hormones or hypothalamus

Question 13

What does the drug treatment of anorexia state?

Answer 13

Use of drugs linked to comorbid conditions (other disorders present at same time as AN), being depression anxiety and OCD.

Drugs used to manage symptoms but not directly deal with AN and can be given both antidepressants and antipsychotics

By reducing symptoms more success can be gained from psychological therapy

Question 14

What are anti depressants in treating anorexia?

Answer 14

Most common are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI’s) like fluoxetine.

They block serotonin reuptake back to presynaptic neurone leaving serotonin to pass messages to post synaptic neuron to reduce depression symptoms

Reduces AN problem by increasing appetite due to more serotonin affecting hypothalamus

Question 15

What are antipsychotics in treating anorexia?

Answer 15

Reduce symptoms of anxiety and delusions of distorted body image by blocking dopamine in Mesolithic pathway leading to reduction in activity of dopamine controlling unrealistic ideas about weight

Also flood reward pathways during eating and drugs like Olazapine increase ghrelin levels in stomach decreasing feelings of fullness encouraging more eating

Question 16

What are 3 strengths for the drug treatment of anorexia?

Answer 16

Kaye found AN patients given SSRI’a had lower relapse rates during recovery with more body weight and less symptoms than placebo drug

Jensen found treating 3 patients with olansapine each day was positive influence as helped them to make more positive perception of own body image

Scientific as can check levels of neurotransmitters like serotonin in brain which allows treatment to be tested effectively when seeing symptoms in brain of AN patients

Question 17

What are 3 weaknesss for the drug treatment of anorexia?

Answer 17

Powers found results of antipsychotic drugs mixed worked for some and not others

Eisner found 90% of adolescents with FBT recovered and 80% no longer meeting AN criteria by stage 3 so more effective treatment method than drugs

Ignores social factor like observing which drugs have no effect on, not effective for everyone

Question 18

What does family based therapy as a treatment for anorexia state?

Answer 18

Team approach with parents and siblings being seen as recluse to aid recovery

Available for adolecnse who below 75% of tragedy body weight with 3 phases to bring back control to adolescence over eating patterns and life

Involves 20 sessions over 6-12 months and patient is encourage to see AN and child as 2 diff things acting as referee between child and food

Question 19

A02 Is the influence of role models and celebrities somthing that causes anorexia?

Answer 19

Social learning theory says that anorexia symptoms due to attending to images of thin bodies and then retaining these as guide for what ur body should be

Vicarious reinforcement, seeing thin models being rewarded in media witj praise and money may lead to people getting AN to get rewards

May be classically conditioned to as we learn to associate wealth and thin with being beautiful

Operant theory also suggest when we get get positive reinforcement we reproduce that behaviour, pro ana websites or compliments from family could make people want to lose weight

Question 20

A03 Is the influence of role models and celebrities somthing that causes anorexia?

Answer 20

Beckers study found girls before TV purged 0% but girls after purged 11.3%

Willemsen found women originally from Caribbean culture put on weight to feel beautiful as seen that “big is beautiful” and then lost weight on Europe due to imitation of images surrounded her

Individual differences, not everyone who sees models in media develops AN may be personality

Scott van Zealand found anorexia was due to genetic variant in EPHX2 gene in anorexic patients compared to control suggesting it’s more to do with biology

Also quadde with lesions of lateral hypothalamus on obese people

Sui WAh, AN is rare in black populations of western and non western countries as they don’t associate slim with beauty

Question 21

What is pre trial publicity?

Answer 21

When crime is distributed across media, TV internet and anyone can provide opnion about the crime

Usally detrimental to case of the defendant as outcomes of trail can be affected before it starts, during it and after it due to majority opnion

Question 22

What is the majority opnion and schema theory link to pre-trial publicity

Answer 22

Opnions of majority influnciak in final decisions made within jury

Leads to jurors conforming to group majority as being a minority can create anxiety (normative influence) so conform and fit in and being part of majority can make you feel right (informational influence)

Schema theory says all knowledge is organised into units stored in memory and used to make sense of situations so may explain why watching pre trial news could change your memory

Question 23

What are some supporting evidence of pre trial publicity

Answer 23

Kovera: used 2 rape cases with different media exposure and found mock jurors who exposed to pro defence media coverage needed more evidence to convict than pro prosecution media

Reiva found 30 mock jurors exposed to negative pre-trial publicity more likely to discuss ambiguous details of case that support the media shows it influences us

Question 24

How does attractiveness affect courtroom

Answer 24

Implicit personality theory: physically attractive ppl must have attractive personalities, seen in media in ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’

May also have negative effect if offender seen as using good looks to commit crime

Question 25

How does race effect courtroom decisions

Answer 25

If jury made up of ppl of same ethnic origin as the D less likely to convict then perosn of diff ethnic-explained by social identity theory as anyone who is out group treated harsh than in group

Social comparison also says this allows them to make their race seem superior as they not committing crime

Also social stereotyping like in South Africa only black prisoners taken to jail before end of apartheid

Question 26

How does accent effect courtroom decisions

Answer 26

Accents Carry vocal cadence and cultural history

Accent bias when someone evualted based on spoken words, listening to accent voices requires more cognitive recourses

Accents part of speakers social identity, cue for ethnicity which can cause negative stereotypes and racism

Feel lack of trust to defendants with foreign or heavy accent

Regional accents and use of slang in an area can also make jurors bias as they link accent with areas crime

Question 27

What is one strength of attractiveness, race and accent explanations of courtroom decision making

Answer 27

Attractiveness: baron found attractive defendants more likely to receive light sentences and gain sympathy of jurors showing bias affect verdicts

Race: Eberhardt, more stereotypically black defendant was more likely to revive death penalty (30% diff between white and black)

Accent: Dixon found those with strong brummie accent more considered to be guilty than those with posh accents using mock trial