A Ph.D. thesis at the University of the Basque Country has analyzed the role played by a number of emotional variables, such as the way in which negative emotions are controlled or attitudes to emotional expression, and to use these variables as tools to predict the possibility of suffering an eating disorder.
The author of the thesis, Ms. Aitziber Pascual Jimeno, presented her work under the title, Emotions and emotional control in eating disorders: predictor role and emotional profiles. Ms Pascual is a graduate in Psychology and carried out her thesis under Ms Itziar Etxebarria Bilbao and Ms María Soledad Cruz Sáez, from the Department of Basic Psychological Processes and their Development at the Faculty of Psychology of the UPV/EHU. She is currently working as a lecturer at the University.
This work focused on two objectives: to find out if certain emotional variables play an significant role in the development of these disorders; and to know in more detail the emotional profiles, both of women at risk of contracting an eating disorder as well as of those already suffering from one.
To this end, the following emotional variables have been specified: those relative to emotional experience -the frequency of positive and negative emotions, anxiety, low self-esteem and the influence of diet, weight and the body shape on the emotional state-; negative perception of emotions, negative attitude to emotional expression, alexithymia -the inability to identify own emotions and to express them verbally- and the manner of controlling negative emotions.
Moreover, another variable has also been taken into account: the need for control. This variable is not strictly emotional, but has a clear emotional component, given that people with a high need for control, experience anxiety and unwellness when perceiving lack of control.
Study of women