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Physiological and self‐report responses of restrained and unrestrained eaters
Author(s) -
Norvell Nancy,
Kallman William
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
international journal of eating disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.785
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1098-108X
pISSN - 0276-3478
DOI - 10.1002/1098-108x(198807)7:4<487::aid-eat2260070406>3.0.co;2-e
Subject(s) - psychology , anxiety , stressor , developmental psychology , cognition , mechanism (biology) , clinical psychology , neuroscience , psychiatry , philosophy , epistemology
According to the theory of dietary restraint, restrained normal‐weight individuals are similar to the obese in terms of hyperresponsiveness to external stimuli, and, perhaps, presumed internal underresponsiveness, differing only in the extent to which body weight has been successfully regulated. The present study sought to clarify the mechanism for this hyperemotionality and to investigate whether the presumed underresponsiveness to internal nutritional cues also extends to internal (i.e., autonomic) cues for restrained eaters. Restrained and unrestrained subjects were exposed to a cognitive and an interpersonal stressor during which physiological and self‐report measures of anxiety were recorded. No evidence for actual physiological differences between restrained and unrestrained eaters were found. However, the results indicated that unrestrained subjects demonstrated a significant relationship between physiological and self‐report measures of anxiety, while both normal weight and obese restrained eaters shows no positive relationship between physiological states and self‐rated anxiety.