PROCESSING OF THREAT-RELATED INFORMATION BY WOMEN WITH BULIMIC EATINGATTITUDES

It has been proposed that bulimic attitudes and behaviors serve the fu nction of reducing awareness, especially where a situation is regarded as threatening. However, there is little evidence to support this mod el. Considering a non-eating-disordered population, this study tested the prediction that a higher level of bulimic eating attitudes will be associated with a characteristic pattern of cognitive processing, whe re the individual is slower to respond to threatening information. In a computer-driven test of information processing, it was shown that wo men with more bulimic attitudes were slower to respond to threatening than neutral words, while there was no such effect for the women with less bulimic attitudes. This finding was specific to bulimic attitudes , rather than simply being related to unhealthy eating attitudes in ge neral. These findings support the ''escape from awareness'' model of b ulimic attitudes and behavior. Further research is needed, particularl y to verify these findings in women with diagnosable bulimic disorders . (C) 1995 by John Wiley and Sons, Inc.