Discuss attitudes towards food and/or eating behaviour (24 marks) Essay

in that location are many translations for the different attitudes of nutrition and tire behaviour. One of the main invoices is well-disposed education surmisal. This emphasises the impact of observing other spate on our attitudes and behaviour. In terms of parental modelling, it is suggested that children can accomplish their attitudes towards victuals by observing the behaviour of their parents. This is beca manipulation the children are observing their parents feeding patterns and therefore the parents are playacting as take power models.Children will bill poster that their parents are rewarded when they enjoy certain nutriments. The children will and then imit have these take behaviours as they will continue to get rewarded by doing so. Social erudition surmisal therefore expresses the fact that children their sustenance preferences as a resoluteness of vicarious reinforcement. As expected, there is a significant correlation among the diets of par ents and their children. Brown and Ogden report consistent correlations between parents and their children in terms of raciness-food intake, take motivations and body dissatisfaction.This is support for social discipline possible action because it is showing that observation in the home during puerility is a significant factor in find have behaviour and food attitudes. As considerably as this, in an experiment carried out by Duncker (1938), children observed a series of role models devising food pickaxes different to their own much(prenominal) as their mother, a friend, an unknown adult and a sham hero. The findings showed that all the role models had an impact on the childrens subsequent food choices except the unknown adult. thereof children are more likely to sample unfamiliar foods after they have seen a significant role model ( take upicularly their mother rather than a stranger) eat the food. This therefore supports the social tuition theory explanation because it shows that parental attitudes and behaviour is especially an essential part of the social learning process of food choice and ingest behaviour. Media is another factor that has an influence on our attitudes and behaviour towards food.The role of social learning is homely in the impact of media because throughout childhood, children are assail qualified to widespread food advertising on tv to accommodate food seem more attractive. This motion picture can be effective in ontogeny preferences, but unfortunately it can have interdict effects because the advertised food tends to be juicy in fat and carbohydrates which can contribute to problems such as child obesity. Children observe role models in the media and due to vicarious reinforcement they are much motivated to imitate the behaviour that they see.This means that advertisements involving food as well as role models are definitely powerful in shaping peoples food preferences. The role of social learning through media effe cts is supported in a champaign by MacIntyre et al. , who put in that the media has a major(ip) impact both on what we eat, and our attitudes to certain foods. When evaluating social learning as an explanation of attitudes to food and eating behaviour, there is quite a lot of enquiry support. The importance of social learning in attitudes towards food was demonstrated by Meyer and Gast.They surveyed 10-12 year old girls and boys and found a significant positive correlation between peer influences and disordered eating. The likeability of peers was considered to be the most significant factor in this relationship. However, this guide shows that eating behaviour can be learned through alternative role models other than just our parents. Even though this study shows support, there are still issues with the theory and research into social learning as an explanation of attitudes and eating behaviour.For example, most studies and research support use correlations as their main eviden ce. Although these correlations allow us to study links between variables, they do not wax that one variable causes the other (e. g. media causes disordered eating). There whitethorn be other, extraneous variables that can formulate why the co-variables being studied are linked. These studies whitethorn therefore lack in internal/ immaterial validity. As well as this, the social learning explanation has been criticised for ignoring other factors that have influenced attitudes to food and eating behaviour.It has been recognised that attitudes towards food are clearly a product of much more than social learning alone. For example, evolutionary explanations of food preferences suggest that our liking of rich and sweet food is a direct result of an evolved adaptation among our distant ancestors over 2 one million million million years ago. Therefore, we may not be able to completely rely on findings based on social learning theory as there could be many other factors that are add t o our eating behaviour. Another explanation for our attitudes to food and eating behaviour is our style.Low biliousness can lots result in comfort eating, and low climate in any case seems to influence binge eating behaviour. Davis et al (1988) showed that low mood often preceded binge eating in bulimics. The same seems to apply in those with no known eating disorder. Students were asked to record their mood and eating habits over a two week period. eld that included binge eating tended also to be days of low mood, but significantly, binge eating did nothing to improve mood afterwards. So although we may binge when down it seems to do little to make us feel better.This influence of mood on our eating behaviours is supported by Garg et al. who conducted a study that focused on the impact of different scuds on mood and therefore eating behaviour. They observed food choices of 38 participants as they watched either an eudaimonia, funny lease or a sad, depressing one. Participa nts were offered buttered popcorn and seeded grapes throughout the films. They found that those watching the sad film consumed 36% more popcorn than those watching the offbeat film, but the upbeat film group ate a lot more grapes.Garg et al. concluded that people who feel sad or depressed are more likely to go for a snack that tastes good in order to escape their nix mood. Happy people want to extend their upbeat mood and so choose to eat healthy foods. Even though there is support for mood influencing our eating behaviour, it is unclear why a binge-eating successiveness as a result of low mood is reinforcing for the individual, especially as any benefit appears to be brief at best. Many studies have also reported a mood decrement in individuals immediately after their binge.In terms of IDA, sex activity bias is an issue with most studies focusing on attitudes towards food and eating behaviour. These studies mainly focus on only womens attitudes to eating behaviour, particular ly in terms of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating. However, a macro number of studies have also shown that in men, homoeroticism is a risk factor in suppuration of disordered eating attitudes and levels of dieting. This suggests that studies that concentrate only on women offer a limited view of attitudes of food and eating behaviour and their findings will not be reliable if they were to be generalised to the population as a whole.