Restraint, Weight Suppression, and Self-Report Reliability: How Much D :: essays research papers

In the analytical report entitled Restraint, Weight Suppression, and Self-Report Reliability: How Much Do You Really Weigh? By P.J. Morgan and D.B. Jeffrey, they look at the eating habits of people and categorize them as three types of people. Those categories are Dieting and Overeating group, Current Dieting, and Weight Suppression. The Dieting/Overeating group consists of "individuals who undergo repetitive cycles of dieting and overeating,"(Morgan, 1999). They have the appearance of a diet, but overeat every once in a while to make up for it and to fulfill food desires. The Current Dieting group "encompasses those who consider themselves to be currently on a diet and who consume less food than what is required than what is required for maintenance of their current weight," (Morgan, 1999). They are ones that eat small portions of food and starve themselves to keep their weight down or to lose weight. This can also be categorized as anorexia nervosa, a clin ical eating disorder that afflicts primarily women. The last category is the Weight Suppressors, who "successfully lost weight and have kept it off for some time," (Morgan, 1999). These people have lost the weight by some means and have kept the weight off by adopting better eating and exercise habits. The groups were split into two groups, the control group and the variable group. The experiment was to see what the effects would be on each type of person in the variable group when enticed with a milkshake "Preload" which tastes better than a regular milkshake and is higher in fat and calories. The control group would not receive the "Preload" shake so the experimenters could monitor normal reactions of persons from each group. The result was the "Preload" group ate more than the control group regardless of their category. The authors concluded that the dieting and appetite suppression is a mental game of the person and is only as strong as their own conscience and taste. However, that is only one way to look at the information. The structural functionalist perspective focuses on the manifest and latent reasons for dieting. The manifest reason a person to diet is to look better physically. Physical acceptability is very important to people, both male and female alike. It is a part of out status as a human and gives value to our appearance as well. The latent function is to make ourselves healthier inside and out, by improving our immune system and eliminating cholesterol from our blood vessel, which could cause blockage.