TOWARD A SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF FOOD USE

This paper focuses on the social construction of food use patterns through the dialectical moments of externalisation, objectiuation, and internalization. The major emphasis is on the situational, intersubjective, and symbolic dimensions of food use which have most often been overlooked by normative programs and research. Also, the point is made that there is great diversity in food use patterns across groups and cultures and each is based upon different logic by which food use is organized. The "basic four" logic popular in middle-class America is not the food logic, but a food logic.