Background Information Research has shown that body dissatisfaction is widespread amongst Western teenage girls and adult women. Furthermore, body dissatisfaction has been found to be an independent predictor of disordered eating. This makes it a significant risk factor in the development of Bulimia Nervosa (BN) and other eating disorders. Body dissatisfaction: being unhappy with one’s body. It’s usually measured by comparing …
Cognitive etiologies of bulimia nervosa (and studies)
Introduction Potential risk factors for the development of bulimia nervosa (BN) include those related to thought patterns (i.e. cognition) like body dissatisfaction, idealization of thinness, distorted body images and what people perceive others to prefer in terms of body weight and shape. These thought patterns could then lead to behaviours that could lead to the development of BN, like dieting …
Exam Tip: How to explain prevalence of disorders
If you’re studying Abnormal Psychology as one of your options in IB Psychology it’s important that you can explain differences in prevalence rates. In the old syllabus you have to: Discuss cultural and gender variations in the prevalence of (one or more) disorders. In the new syllabus it just states: Prevalence rates and disorders The key here is much like my …
When drug trials go wrong…
When testing a new drug there always has to be volunteers for the first human participants to take the drug. But what happens if the trial fails. Like, fails really badly? This is what happened in 2006 when eight male volunteers signed up to be participants in a “first in humans” study. The treatment was a proposed cancer treatment, but …
Clinical Drug Trials, PTSD and SSRIs
This post is designed to be used in lesson 4.6 in the PTSD unit plan. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of drug therapy using selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) to treat PTSD, we need to consult the research. The most common way the effectiveness of drugs are tested is through a carefully controlled experiments. These experiments are also known …
Exam Tip: How to explain an etiology of a disorder…
Explaining an etiology of a disorder can be quite tricky for some students because they focus on the disorder in general. But in order to have a really effective explanation you’re better to focus on specific symptoms. A three step approach to explaining an etiology When learning an etiology or planning an exam answer, you can follow these three simple …