SOWK 2025 Test: Eating Disorders (EDs) Viewed as Multi-Determined

SOWK 2025 Test
Eating Disorders (EDs) can be viewed as “multi-determined”, which means viewing individuals with EDs as sharing a set of distorted and dysfunctional attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs about food, body size, and weight (Stein, 1996). EDs are thought to be correlated to an interaction of sociocultural, individual, and familial factors. So the interaction of these factors leads to the development of an ED, despite not fully understanding the mechanism. Common effects of ED behavior, such as starvation, chaotic eating, and disordered cognitions, play a prominent role in the development and maintenance of an ED, while in turn having profound emotional, psychological, and physical consequences.
Garfinkel & Garner (1980) has recognized Anorexia nervosa as a multi-determined as they have presented in Fig. 2 in their article as shown below:


This means that the development of eating disorders involves a combination of biological, personality, socio-cultural, psychological, and familial factors. Research has consistently indicated that eating disorders are not the result of a single causal factor. Common personality traits for individuals with EDs, often considered as predisposing factors, include introversion, conformity, and perfectionism (Garfinkel & Garner, 1980). Focusing on only one possible contributory factor is insufficient for examining the etiology of eating disorders.
For instance, as we have discussed that Anorexia Nervosa (AN) may be viewed as a multi-determined disorder, or in other words, AN may occur as a result of a combination of biological, personality, socio-cultural, psychological, family, and sociocultural factors rather than as a result of any one of these factors in isolation. Although AN is primarily based on physical symptoms, psychological features prominently underlie this disorder. The self-esteem of individuals with AN significantly correlates with their body shape and weight. Individuals with AN view weight loss as an impressive achievement and sign of astonishing self-discipline, while weight gain is interpreted as a sign of loss of control (Stein, 1996).
Dieting has been linked to lead to binge eating (Polivy & Herman, 1985), but there is less support for the connection of dietary restraint to the development of binge eating disorder in obese individuals. Polivy & Herman (1985) found that obese and normal weight individuals who binge eat showed high levels of weight and shape concern. However, obese individuals who binge eat exhibited significantly lower levels of restraint than their normal weight counterparts.
There are two studies cited in Polivy & Herman (1985) that indicated that for obese individuals who binge eat, binge eating precedes dieting, not the reverse (Shetty et al., 1981; Wilson, 1976). Although dieting may precede binge eating, for most obese individuals with binge eating disorder, the reverse is true.
Polivy & Herman (1985) research on restrained eating attempted to identify predictors of dieting and binge eating. Their research indicated that the primary predictor of dieting among dieters was the desire to be thinner. In the case of binge eating disorder, where bingeing often precedes dieting, the pressure ...