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Biomedical subjects

T F Heatherton

Publications and source records attributed to T F Heatherton.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1996

Disordered eating: can women accurately recall their binging and purging behaviors 10 years later?

OBJECTIVE: To test women's ability to recall their past binging and purging behaviors. DESIGN: Ten-year follow-up study of women who had participated in a cross-sectional survey during college. SUBJECTS: In 1982, a sample of freshman and senior women at a large university in the Boston area were questioned about their weight, dieting history, bulimic symptoms, and eating patterns, attitudes, and concerns. In 1992, all subjects who responded to the 1982 survey were followed up to assess changes in bulimic symptoms and ability to recall past behaviors. RESULTS: Among the 476 women who responded to both surveys, the percentage in 1992 who reported having ever binged and/or purged was less than the percentage in 1982, indicating that the recall of past behaviors was less than perfect. Denial in 1992 of ever having engaged in the behaviors ranged from 22% among the women who were self-inducing vomiting in 1982 to 64% among the women who had reported current fasting or strict dieting in 1982. Recall of past behaviors in 1992 was better among the women who had been current bingers or purgers in 1982. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate that ability to recall past binging and purging is only modest. Therefore to better understand the mental and physical health consequences of these behaviors this information should be collected prospectively.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Body weight, dieting, and eating disorder symptoms among college students, 1982 to 1992.

OBJECTIVE: The authors sought to examine changes in prevalence of dieting behavior and eating disorder symptoms from 1982 to 1992. METHOD: In 1982, 625 women and 276 men participated in a study examining body weight, eating habits, dieting tendencies, and eating disorder symptoms. Ten years later 564 women and 235 men at the same college completed a nearly identical survey. Similar random sampling methods were used for both studies. All respondents were classified into one of five groups (nondieter, dieter, problem dieter, subclinical eating disorder, or eating disorder according to DSM-III-R criteria). RESULTS: On almost all measures there were significant reductions of problematic eating behaviors and disordered attitudes about body, weight, and shape from 1982 to 1992. The estimated prevalence of bulimia nervosa dropped from 7.2% to 5.1% for women and from 1.1% to 0.4% for men. Binge eating, vomiting, diuretic use, and diet pill use also declined for women during this period. Significantly fewer women and men reported chronic dieting in 1992 than in 1982, and there was evidence of improved body image for both sexes. Subjects in 1992 also reported healthier eating habits in terms of dietary intake and meal regularity. Finally, women in 1992 were more likely to be overweight and were, on average, five pounds heavier than their 1982 counterparts. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of problematic eating behaviors and eating disorder symptoms appears to be abating. However, they remain a significant problem that affects a substantial segment of this population.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Guilt: an interpersonal approach.

Multiple sets of empirical research findings on guilt are reviewed to evaluate the view that guilt should be understood as an essentially social phenomenon that happens between people as much as it happens inside them. Guilt appears to arise from interpersonal transactions (including transgressions and positive inequities) and to vary significantly with the interpersonal context. In particular, guilt patterns appear to be strongest, most common, and most consistent in the context of communal relationships, which are characterized by expectations of mutual concern. Guilt serves various relationship-enhancing functions, including motivating people to treat partners well and avoid transgressions, minimizing inequities and enabling less powerful partners to get their way, and redistributing emotional distress.

Guilt↗
PubMed1993

Effects of high calorie preloads on selective processing of food and body shape stimuli among dieters and nondieters.

Preloaded and nonpreloaded dieters (restrained eaters) and nondieters (unrestrained eaters) completed a modified version of the Stroop task to measure selective biases in cognitive processing. In two separate studies, a milkshake preload led to increased cognitive interference for body shape words, especially for restrained eaters. There were no differences between restrained and unrestrained eaters in Stroop interference for either common or forbidden food words, whether subjects were preloaded or not. Taken together, these results indicate that chronic dieting is associated with selective processing of body shape words.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Are covariation biases attributable to a priori expectancy biases?

Illusory correlation experiments indicate that people overestimate the association between random presentations of snake slides and shock, but do not overestimate the association between random presentations of slides of damaged and exposed electric outlets (DEEOs) and shock. To investigate whether reports of covariation biases might be attributable to expectancy biases, we had Ss rate the a priori probabilities with which they would expect slides of snakes (or DEEOs), flowers, and mushrooms to be paired with shock, a tone, or nothing. In Study 1, Ss reported a pattern of a priori slide/outcome probability estimates that is nearly identical to that reported by Ss who have just undergone an illusory correlation procedure involving phylogenetic fear-relevant stimuli (e.g. snakes). Therefore, postexperimental estimates of covariation involving such stimuli appear at least partly attributable to pre-experimental expectancy biases rather than solely attributable to on-line processing biases. Study 2 revealed that Ss also display inflated a priori probability estimates for DEEO slides and shock, unlike Ss who have just undergone an illusory correlation procedure involving such stimuli. Taken together, these studies suggest that random slide/outcome pairings easily abolish pre-experimental expectancy biases for ontogenetic, but not phylogenetic, fear-relevant stimuli.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

When ego threats lead to self-regulation failure: negative consequences of high self-esteem.

The tendency for people with high self-esteem to make inflated assessments and predictions about themselves carries the risk of making commitments that exceed capabilities, thus leading to failure. Ss chose their performance contingencies in a framework where larger rewards were linked to a greater risk of failure. In the absence of ego threat, Ss with high self-esteem showed superior self-regulation: They set appropriate goals and performed effectively. Ego threat, however, caused Ss with high self-esteem to set inappropriate, risky goals that were beyond their performance capabilities so they ended up with smaller rewards than Ss with low self-esteem. The results indicate the danger of letting egotistical illusions interfere with self-regulation processes.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1993

Self-awareness, task failure, and disinhibition: how attentional focus affects eating.

Dieting and nondieting subjects were given either failure or neutral performance feedback on a problem-solving task. Failure subjects were then assigned to one of three self-awareness conditions: One group was forced to watch a video clip of themselves failing on the problem-solving task, one group was asked to watch a distracting video clip on bighorn sheep, and the final group was asked to sit quietly for 10 minutes. Subjects were then allowed to eat as much ice cream as they wanted. Only in those conditions which allowed--or promoted--low self-awareness (the failure/distraction and simple failure condition) did dieters show disinhibited eating. In the failure/videotape condition, which enforced high levels of self-awareness, eating in dieters remained inhibited. This supports the proposal that a reduction in self-awareness is necessary for lifting of inhibitions. Eating in nondieters was reduced in the failure/videotape and simple failure conditions, possibly because of the autonomic correlates of distress.

Achievement↗
PubMed1992

Effects of distress on eating: the importance of ego-involvement.

Schotte (1992) argued that ego threat is not a necessary precondition for the disinhibition of eating in dieters. This article agrees that there are indeed other triggers for disinhibition, as has long been widely acknowledged, but also argues that when distress does act as a trigger for disinhibition, it does so by threatening the dieter's self-image.

Arousal↗
PubMed1991

Restraint, weight loss, and variability of body weight.

Restrained and unrestrained subjects (n = 24) were weighed daily for a 6-week period and again 6 months later in order to determine whether dietary restraint or relative body weight is the better predictor of weight variability. Restraint was a significantly better predictor of naturally occurring weight fluctuations than was relative body weight. Furthermore, the 2 factors of the Restraint Scale, Concern for Dieting and Weight Fluctuations, were both significant predictors of weight variability. We propose that exaggerated weight fluctuations are not a natural concomitant of higher body weight but possibly the consequence of a cycle of dieting and overeating, which seems to preclude actual weight loss.

Body Weight↗
PubMed1991

Effects of physical threat and ego threat on eating behavior.

Restrained and unrestrained subjects were subjected to one of three distress manipulations prior to an ad lib taste task. The physical fear threat (anticipated electric shock) significantly decreased unrestrained subjects' eating and slightly increased restrained subjects' eating. Both ego threats (failure at an easy task or anticipating having to give a speech in front of an evaluative audience) significantly increased restrained subjects' eating but did not significantly suppress unrestrained subjects' eating. This pattern supports the proposition that physical fear differs from more general dysphoria in its effects on eating, perhaps because of the divergent effects of these two types of distress on eating control mechanisms, which in turn differ in restrained and unrestrained eaters.

Depression↗
PubMed1991

Binge eating as escape from self-awareness.

This article proposes that binge eating is motivated by a desire to escape from self-awareness. Binge eaters suffer from high standards and expectations, especially an acute sensitivity to the difficult (perceived) demands of others. When they fall short of these standards, they develop an aversive pattern of high self-awareness, characterized by unflattering views of self and concern over how they are perceived by others. These aversive self-perceptions are accompanied by emotional distress, which often includes anxiety and depression. To escape from this unpleasant state, binge eaters attempt the cognitive response of narrowing attention to the immediate stimulus environment and avoiding broadly meaningful thought. This narrowing of attention disengages normal inhibitions against eating and fosters an uncritical acceptance of irrational beliefs and thoughts. The escape model is capable of integrating much of the available evidence about binge eating.

Body Image↗
PubMed1991

The Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence: a revision of the Fagerström Tolerance Questionnaire.

We examine and refine the Fagerström Tolerance Questionnaire (FTQ: Fagerström, 1978). The relation between each FTQ item and biochemical measures of heaviness of smoking was examined in 254 smokers. We found that the nicotine rating item and the inhalation item were unrelated to any of our biochemical measures and these two items were primary contributors to psychometric deficiencies in the FTQ. We also found that a revised scoring of time to the first cigarette of the day (TTF) and number of cigarettes smoked per day (CPD) improved the scale. We present a revision of the FTQ: the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND).

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Self-selected blocking of vents on low-yield cigarettes.

Blockers of vents in ultra-low-yield cigarettes had higher levels of carbon monoxide (CO) and salivary cotinine than did nonblockers. None of the blockers reported that they blocked vents. Exposure differences seemed not to be due simply to vent blocking, but also to be the result of syndromes of heavier (blocking, more cigarettes per day, and starting earlier in the morning) or lighter smoking (not blocking, fewer cigarettes per day, and starting later in the morning). The results are interpreted in light of the boundary model. Cigarette smoking and brand selection should be studied as they occur naturally, as well as in experimentally contrived studies.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Restraint and internal responsiveness: effects of placebo manipulations of hunger state on eating.

Restrained and unrestrained subjects were given a "vitamin" (placebo) prior to an ad-lib taste test. Subjects were either told nothing about the placebo or told that previous subjects had reported that the vitamin had made them feel either hungry or full. As predicted, restrained subjects, in two separate studies, behaved in accordance with placebo messages, eating more when given "hungry" messages than when given "full" messages. Unrestrained subjects showed an apparent reverse-placebo effect; they ate less ice cream when given "hungry" information than when given "full" information. Hunger ratings did not parallel eating behavior; possible explanations for this discrepancy are considered. We conclude that unresponsiveness to internal hunger state, and an overreliance on external cognitive cues, characterizes restrained but not unrestrained individuals.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Measuring the heaviness of smoking: using self-reported time to the first cigarette of the day and number of cigarettes smoked per day.

Two simple self-report measures have been used to assess the heaviness of smoking, 'number of cigarettes per day' (CPD) and 'time to the first cigarette of the day' (TTF). Little attention, however, has been given to the precise method of scoring this information. Using biochemical indicators of heaviness of smoking (alveolar carbon monoxide and cotinine), we explore the optimum data transformations for regression analysis and categorical analysis. We suggest a four category scoring scheme for both time to the first cigarette of the day (less than or equal to 5, 6-30, 31-60 and 61+ min) and average daily consumption of cigarettes (1-10, 11-20, 21-30, 31+ cigarettes) as the most powerful and practical categorical scoring of these variables. Due to possible ceiling effects on biochemical measures, we suggest using logarithmic transformations of CPD or TTF for regression or correlation analyses.

Adolescent↗