Psychological Explanations: Cognitive Theory

Q: Gardner and Moncrieff (1988)

**Gardner and Moncrieff (1988)** investigated body image distortion in people with anorexia and people who did not have anorexia.

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Cognitive Theory and Anorexia Nervosa

Cognitive theory posits that a distorted self-perception and irrational beliefs about weight and their appearance may explain the development of anorexia nervosa (AN).

Distortions

Individuals with AN may compare themselves to individuals who they look-up to, such as models, and perceive themselves as overweight in comparison.
People may base their thoughts on themselves wholly on appearance. They may develop an elevated desire to lose weight.
People with AN often report that they look in the mirror and see a large, overweight person even when they are critically underweight. It's been shown that they often overestimate their silhouette size compared to healthy individuals.

Irrational beliefs

People with AN have often thinking patterns that are illogical and not consistent with reality.
They often engage in catastrophising (believing the absolute worst outcome will always happen) and absolutist thinking (thinking that one action means a very specific outcome that is out of proportion with the actual action).
People with AN are often perfectionists, and this is never-ending. They are not satisfied with their outcomes and constantly set goals that are harder and harder to reach.

The Trans-diagnostic model

Fairburn et al. (2003) said that AN symptoms are all part of a wider eating disorder, and that all disordered eating is driven by the same set of underlying cognitive distortions.
These distortions include abnormal interpretations of self-control, self-esteem determined by appearance and weight, and a distorted self-perception with regards to appearance and weight.
They describe the mechanism of AN maintenance of low weight as being linked to greater self-control boosting self-esteem.

Gardner and Moncrieff (1988)

Gardner and Moncrieff (1988) investigated body image distortion in people with anorexia and people who did not have anorexia.

Procedure

18 women (9 people with anorexia and 9 controls) were given a task which involved manipulating their body image on a screen to provide an actual representation and an ideal representation.
Finally, they were shown an image that they had to judge for accuracy to their own body shape.

Results & conclusions

Results
- There were no differences in accuracy of producing a true body image and both groups selected a smaller image as ideal. However, the participants with anorexia were much more likely to suggest that the final image they were shown was a distorted image and not representative of their actual body shape.
Conclusion
- This suggests that the theory of distorted image is more complicated than simply seeing onself as 'fat'. People with anorexia may be aware of their own size or shape, but think photographs or reflections are distorted.

Evaluation

Strengths
- Controlled, reliable experiment.
Limitations
- Individual differences not accounted for
- Cognitive distortion might be a symptom, not a cause of anorexia.