Browsing by Subject "eating disorders"

Eating disorders pose a serious threat to the physical and mental health of those who suffer from them. Given the impact of these disorders and difficulty treating them, it is important to understand the nature of them and factors involved in their development and maintenance. The empirical investigation of eating disorders is made difficult by the extreme heterogeneity seen within current DSM-IV diagnostic categories. Research on emotion regulation in eating disorders is rising, yet scant in terms of identifying specific difficulties and points of intervention. The proposed study focused on the construct of emotion regulation and its relation to the eating disorders by: (1) empirically identifying groups of eating disorder participants based on symptoms and (2) examining specific difficulties in emotion regulation capacities in each of the identified groups of eating disorder participants and (3) identifying whether difficulties in emotion regulation contribute to eating disorder symptom severity. A clinical sample of individuals with eating disorders was classified into subgroups based on symptom frequency using latent profile analysis. The most parsimonious and best fitting model was a four-profile solution which resulted in four distinct subgroups. Profile 1 consisted of individuals who endorsed moderate restriction and occasional binge eating and vomiting, all at a subclinical level. Profiles 2, 3, and 4 all met criteria for bulimia nervosa and consisted of individuals who engaged in restriction, binge eating, and purging though in varying degrees. When these groups were compared to a sample of college aged healthy control participants using multivariate analysis of variance, results indicate that individuals in profile 1, which comprised 71% of the sample, experience greater difficulty with emotion regulation in the areas of awareness, nonacceptance, and perceived access to strategies to help them feel better. Results of three hierarchical regression analyses showed that difficulties in emotion regulation did not significantly contribute to symptom severity as anticipated..

Objectification theory, as delineated by Barbara L. Fredrickson and Tomi-Ann Roberts, posits that women are trained to view themselves as visual objects for consumption. The related term, self-objectification, describes the altered psychological state where an individual begins to view themselves as a body or sum of body parts. Ballet dancers exhibit higher levels of self-objectification and eating disorders than the general public and high levels of self-objectification are correlated to eating and body image disturbances. This thesis gathers, applies, and expands pedagogical tools for discouraging self-objectification in the ballet classroom in university, private studio, and open online settings. It also proposes the facilitation of flow states as the “next frontier” of addressing one of ballet’s infamous problems and details a choreographic process dedicated to understanding and cultivating amenable conditions for flow and yu. Flow is an embodied experience where an individual is performing at optimum level while fully engaged in an activity. The related concept, yu, is associated with the spiritual release and ease that comes after an individual has disciplined their habits toward living an ethical life. The final choreographic work investigates various aspects of flow and yu including intention, curiosity, bliss, distraction, collective engagement, joy, space, and suspension of time. The resulting performance reflects the individual and collective experience of flow and yu of the dancers who performed the piece. The thesis concludes with a reflection on insights that can be gleaned from intersecting paths of pedagogical research and choreographic inquiry.

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a dangerous disorder characterized by unrelenting rigidity that continues even in the presence of deadly outcomes. Despite this, our understanding of factors that promote and maintain rigidity is lacking. The current paper proposes a model suggesting that rigid behaviors in AN can be formulated as maladaptive rule-governed behavior that emerges in contexts of uncertainty and loss of control, such as in the presence of affective arousal. An empirical study examining the differences between individuals weight recovered from AN (AN-WR) and healthy controls (CN) on parameters of rule-governed behavior in neutral and stressful contexts is described. Seventy-four adults (AN-WR: 36; CN: 38) were randomized to undergo either a stressful or neutral mood manipulation and then completed a laboratory assessment of rule-governed behavior, along with questionnaires measuring difficulties with uncertainty. While the AN-WR group demonstrated greater flexibility in rule implementation compared to the CN group, they evidenced greater impairment in behavioral extinction. Furthermore, although affective arousal did not significantly impact rule-governed behavior as expected, difficulties tolerating uncertainty were significantly related to rule-governed outcomes exclusively in the AN-WR group. Taken together, findings provide preliminary support for maladaptive rule-governed behavior in AN and suggest that this is related to an intolerance of uncertainty. Findings and treatment implications are discussed in light of study limitations.