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Manipulation of thinness and restricting expectancies: further evidence for a causal role of thinness and restricting expectancies in the etiology of eating disorders.

Author
Abstract
:

To test the eating disorder expectancy theory contention that expectancies for reinforcement from thinness play a causal role in body dissatisfaction and eating disorder symptoms, the authors manipulated expectancies in 2 studies. Participants were exposed to either a psychoeducational intervention or an experimental manipulation of thinness and restricting expectancies. Study 1 participants were symptomatic college women who attended 3 experimental sessions and 1 follow-up session, each 1 week apart. Study 2 participants were high school girls who received the 3 experimental sessions clustered into 2 meetings; they completed symptom measures at baseline and at follow-up. In both samples, the thinness expectancy manipulation produced greater declines in thinness expectancies and body dissatisfaction than did the psychoeducational intervention. For high school girls, the thinness expectancy manipulation also produced a greater decline in overall eating-disordered attitudes. These results provide further support for the role of expectancies in the etiology of eating-disordered behaviors.

Year of Publication
:
2008
Journal
:
Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors
Volume
:
22
Issue
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2
Number of Pages
:
278-87
ISSN Number
:
0893-164X
URL
:
http://content.apa.org/journals/adb/22/2/278
DOI
:
10.1037/0893-164X.22.2.278
Short Title
:
Psychol Addict Behav
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