Discuss factors and attitudes influencing eating behaviour Essay

There are many factors and attitudes, which nookie realise a major decide over an single(a)s take in conduct, such(prenominal) as mood, cultural factors or even their parents. humour can be possessed of a major beguile over an singulars eating behaviour. It has been suggested that person who over eats or under eats, may be suffering from Depression, and they use their eating behaviour as a agency of masking their negatively charged mood. It has excessively been shown that being in a small-scale mood state can result in the desire to eat sweet or steadfast sustenances.This is said to be because carbohydrates help the manufacture of serotonin (neurotransmitter associated with mood). Consuming high carb foods can also be used as a way of self-medicating an individuals low mood. Verplanken et al (2005) conducted a correlational analysis on mood, impulse buying and the outlay of snacks. In this study, it was make that those with low self-esteem were more likely to impu lse buy and consume snacks. It could be said that this is their way of coping with the emotional inconvenience caused by low-self esteem.Therefore musical accompaniment the idea that an individuals mood can influence their eating behaviour. However, as this was a correlational study, cause and make can not be established. It may be that impulse buying causes a lowered mood. kind scholarship Theory places emphasis on the touch on that observant other people (i. e. our peers) has on our in the flesh(predicate) attitudes and behaviour. Our eating behaviours and attitudes to food, can be down to observing the behaviour of our parents.Parental attitudes towards food inevitably go children because they control the food bought and served in the household. However, seek has also shown an association in the midst of parents and childrens attitudes towards food generally. For example, browned and Ogden (2004), reported consistent correlations between parents and their children, in wrong of snack food intake, eating motivations and also body dissatisfaction. Our attitudes and eating behaviour can also be effected by influences from our peers.A study supporting this theory was conducted by Meyer and Gast (2008) who surveyed 10-12 year old girls and boys, and found a significant positive correlation between peer influence an disordered eating. The likeability of peers was considered the most essential factor in this relationship. One criticism of the loving Learning Theory is that it focuses solely on knowledge eating behaviours through observation of others. It fails to take into figure biological and evolutionary factors which can also have a major influence over our attitudes towards food and our eating behaviours.Another factor which can have an influence over an individuals eating behaviour, is cultural influences. search carried out by Bally and Kenardy, examined the eating habits of women in Australia, they specifically focussed on a gathering age d between 18 to 23. From this study, they found that the nightlong the women spent in Australia, the more likely they were to fudge their attitudes towards eating in a similar way to women born in Australia. This is known as acculturation.This research strongly suggests that eating behaviour is learnt and is because linked to the behavioural model. However, similar to the Social Learning Theory, this fails to take into account biological reasons for eating habits or why some disorders such as Anorexia, can be heredity. As well as this, the research can also be said to be reductionist as it was only set in Australia therefore, the results can not be generalised to the wider population.Also, other criticism of this study, is that it is gender biased, as it only looked at women, rather than looking at the eating behaviours of some(prenominal) sexes. Further studies linked to this imply that, body dissatisfaction is a characteristic of sportsmanlike women rather than black/ Asiat ic women. However, evidence from Mumford et al goes against this. Mumford et al found that bulimia was more common amongst Asian school girls than their white counterparts. This therefore questions whether the ethnicity of an individual plays a role in our eating behaviour.