M. Gattellari et Gf. Huon, RESTRAINED AND UNRESTRAINED FEMALES POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE ASSOCIATIONS WITH SPECIFIC FOODS AND BODY PARTS, The International journal of eating disorders, 21(4), 1997, pp. 377-383
Objective: This study was concerned with the positive and negative aff
ective associations pf categories of ''forbidden'' and ''allowed'' foo
ds, and ''threatening'' and ''nonthreatening'' body parts, among diete
rs and nondieters. Method: Forty-one females, categorized according to
their cognitive restraint scores, completed a rating task that involv
ed indicating the extent to which each food and body part was associat
ed with three positive and three negative emotions or experiences, as
well as with health and illness. Results: Judgements of forbidden food
s were more positive. There was also a significant restraint group by
food type interaction for negative judgements of forbidden foods. A si
gnificant interaction was also produced for subjects' negative ratings
of body parts; subjects high in restraint were more likely to rate th
reatening parts higher on guilt and on anxiety. Forbidden foods were r
ated lower on health and higher on illness, and high restraint subject
s rated both food types more healthy compared with subjects low in res
traint Discussion: Taken together, the results emphasize the subtlety
in the affective associations with foods and body parts, which depend
on their categorization or specific meanings. Fewer differences emerge
d when we compared subjects from the high and low restraint groups. Em
otionality could underly the ''attentional biases'' reported in studie
s using the modified Stroop. (C) 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.