Faculty
Social Sciences
Supervisor Name
Dr. Lindsay Bodell
Keywords
mood, reward, restrictive eating, anorexia nervosa, mental health
Description
Restrictive eating is central to various eating disorders. In particular, it is a key feature and may precede the development of anorexia nervosa. Research on anorexia nervosa has found that individuals use restrictive eating to regulate their emotional states. However, the findings are mixed. Furthermore, individuals with anorexia nervosa have been found to have dysregulated reward processing. However, there is limited agreement in the literature on various aspects of the approach and avoidance mechanisms of individuals with anorexia nervosa. For example, whether the dysregulated reward processing is global or pertains only to rewards relevant to their disordered behaviours and cognitions (e.g., food, the thin ideal, etc.). In addition, there is limited research that explores affect and reward together in solely restrictive eating samples. This infographic presents a research proposal for a study that will examine mood and reward in a non-clinical restrictive eating sample. The proposal includes a review of the literature, the study goals, research questions, hypothesized results, methodology, and anticipated implications. The proposed study will be part of a larger study examining mood and reward in other disordered eating-related samples. The proposed study will include a series of questionnaires, mood inductions, and two progressive ratio tasks (i.e., food and game). The findings in this research may inform mental health education, treatment interventions, and further research.
Acknowledgements
I'd like to thank Dr. Lindsay Bodell, Kendall Schmidt, and the PEAR lab for guiding and supporting me through this process. I'd also like to thank the USRI coordinators and the Western Social Science faculty for providing me with this incredible opportunity.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Document Type
Poster
Mood, Reward, and Restrictive Eating: A Research Proposal
Restrictive eating is central to various eating disorders. In particular, it is a key feature and may precede the development of anorexia nervosa. Research on anorexia nervosa has found that individuals use restrictive eating to regulate their emotional states. However, the findings are mixed. Furthermore, individuals with anorexia nervosa have been found to have dysregulated reward processing. However, there is limited agreement in the literature on various aspects of the approach and avoidance mechanisms of individuals with anorexia nervosa. For example, whether the dysregulated reward processing is global or pertains only to rewards relevant to their disordered behaviours and cognitions (e.g., food, the thin ideal, etc.). In addition, there is limited research that explores affect and reward together in solely restrictive eating samples. This infographic presents a research proposal for a study that will examine mood and reward in a non-clinical restrictive eating sample. The proposal includes a review of the literature, the study goals, research questions, hypothesized results, methodology, and anticipated implications. The proposed study will be part of a larger study examining mood and reward in other disordered eating-related samples. The proposed study will include a series of questionnaires, mood inductions, and two progressive ratio tasks (i.e., food and game). The findings in this research may inform mental health education, treatment interventions, and further research.