Carolijn Ouwehand

Decision-making impairments in women with binge eating disorder in comparison with obese and normal weight women.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of the current study was to examine decision making in female patients with binge eating disorder (BED) in comparison with obese and normal weight women. METHOD In the study, 20 patients with BED, 21 obese women without BED and 34 healthy women participated. Decision making was assessed using the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). Several questionnaires were administered measuring binge eating severity, sensitivity for punishment and reward, and self-control. RESULTS The findings indicated that the BED and obese group performed poorly on the IGT. Participants who have BED and are obese did not improve their choice behaviour over time, whereas participants with normal weight showed a learning effect. An association between IGT performance and binge eating severity was found. CONCLUSION This study demonstrates that patients with BED display decision-making deficits on the IGT comparable with other forms of disordered eating. Future research should focus on unravelling the processes underlying the deficits.

Eat it or beat it. The differential effects of food temptations on overweight and normal-weight restrained eaters

Dieting is difficult to maintain in an environment where cues of attractive, high-calorie food abound. Overweight and restrained eating have been associated with failures of self-regulation in response to such food cues. A subgroup of successful restrained eaters, however, have been found to activate their dieting goal in response to tempting food cues, which helps them to pursue their dieting goal in such situations. The present research extended this finding by examining the effect of tempting food cues on wanting to eat high-calorie snacks in normal-weight and overweight restrained eaters. In an Internet experiment, normal-weight and overweight participants (N=284) were unobtrusively primed with tempting food or neutral food objects. Next, wanting for high-calorie snacks was assessed with a forced-choice measure presenting pictures of high-calorie snacks and low-calorie alternatives. As predicted, exposure to attractive food cues decreased wanting for high-calorie food in normal-weight restrained eaters, but increased wanting in overweight restrained eaters. These results suggest that, in women who are successful in maintaining their weight, food temptations may trigger processes of successful self-regulation, whereas overweight restrained eaters may seem to forget about their diet goal when they are confronted with attractive food, thereby risking the chance to overeat.

Dieting as a case of behavioural decision making. Does self-control matter?

To be a successful dieter, one has to be able to consistently resist immediate temptations in order to achieve the bigger, but delayed rewards of weight loss, increased attractiveness and better health. These long-term benefits are by no means guaranteed as the delayed rewards are more uncertain than the immediate rewards. Several researchers have suggested that the population of restrained eaters consists of two populations: unsuccessful dieters who score high on restraint and high on disinhibition, and successful dieters who score high on restraint but low on disinhibition. The present study examines to what extent restrained eating in combination with individual differences in self-control (akin to low disinhibition) is related to successful decision making on a task that mimics the uncertainty of dieting (measured with the Iowa Gambling Task). As expected, self-control moderated the association between restraint and decision making: restrained eating was related to worse decision making when self-control was low, but to better decision making when self-control was high. This suggest that those high in restraint and high in self-control may be more successful in their dieting attempts because they are generally better at inhibiting short-term rewards in order to gain better long-term outcomes.

Situational aspects are more important in shaping proactive coping behaviour than individual characteristics: A vignette study among adults preparing for ageing

It seems likely that proactive coping is an important mechanism for dealing successfully with threats to personal goals, yet little empirical research has been conducted in relation to this concept. The aim of the present study is to examine to what extent proactive coping is influenced by situation-specific features as well as by personal characteristics. Three vignettes, each representing a potential decline in an important resource (health, social relationships and finance), were presented to 123 adults between 50 and 70 years old. Multilevel analyses show that proactive coping is highly variable within persons and that three situational factors (type of stressor, appraised threat and appraised control) affected the employment of proactive coping strategies. Future temporal orientation was identified as a significant, positive predictor of proactive coping, but none of the other personal factors were found to be relevant.

Effects of Temptation and Weight on Hedonics and Motivation to Eat in Women

Objective: The aim of the present study was to examine the extent to which food temptation influences liking, the hedonics of food, and wanting, the motivation to eat, and whether this effect differed between normal‐weight and overweight women.

Does confrontation with potential goal failure promote self-regulation? Examining the role of distress in the pursuit of weight goals

How do people maintain goal pursuit when confronted with the risk of failure? In two studies (n = 62 and n = 49), we investigated whether a threat of failure manipulation, either or not involving the self, would affect self-regulation in women who were concerned about their weight. We expected that potential goal failure would result in greater distress and influence strategies for goal pursuit and self-control. Study 1, involving normal weight women, found that self-relevant goal threat resulted in greater distress but that distress did not affect self-regulation. Study 2, involving both normal weight and overweight women, found similar results. However, women who were exposed to objective goal threat and at the same time received feedback that the self was not involved spent more time on planning strategies for goal pursuit and demonstrated higher self-control. It is concluded that information emphasizing both opportunities for goal achievement and the necessity to act is sufficient for engaging in self-regulation.

Hot or not: Visceral influences on coping planning for weight loss attempts

The current studies aimed to examine how either or not being hungry (hot vs. cold state) affects uninformed (i.e. without specific instructions) coping planning for maintaining goal-directed behaviour in weight loss attempts. We hypothesised that being hungry is beneficial both for (1) increasing awareness of potentially challenging situations and for (2) planning how to cope with these situations. The first hypothesis was supported, whereas the second was not, as it was found that satiated participants constructed better quality coping plans than hungry participants. It appears that awareness of potentially challenging situations when hungry does not necessarily translate into better coping planning. Although coping planning appears to be a promising strategy for maintaining goal-directed behaviour, future research should focus on visceral states to improve its use.