-Group Project-

Introduction: The issue of weight control in the United States and in our culture is an important aspect of our everyday lives.  Our culture is obssessed with maintaining the ideal body weight and obtaining the perfect figure, and often experiment with a variety of diets and workouts in order to achieve it.  Unfortunately, the success rate of such ventures varies greatly from person to person.  In order to understand the incongruency of these results, one must make use of the psychological perspectives to determine the root of peoples' problems.  Will-power, biological disposition, social pressure, and lack of information are all factors to consider when attempting to control ones' weight.  They also highlight the four pschological perspectives : biological, learning, cognitive, and social.  The biological perspective determines how brain funtion affects appetite, the learning perspective shows how ignorance can lead to poor decision making, the cognitive perspective helps identify thoughts that interfere with weight control, and the social perspective shows how society influences ones' self-image, etc. 

Biological Psychology Perspective: Weight control isn't all in our willpower.  A lot has to do with our biological make-up.  The brains hypothalamus controls our hunger and all metabolic signals.  Without it, food wouldn't be an interest and starvation would become a factor.  There are two parts of the hypothalamus:  the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH), and the lateral hypothalamus (LH).  The VMH controls the suppression of appetite, and the LH is in charge of triggering appetite. 

Leptin levels also determines our weight control abilities.  People with high leptin levels are more likely to be obese than those with low or normal leptin levels.  Leptin is made by fat cells, so the more levels that are present, the more obese the individual may be. 

Food, an individuals natural way of survival, could be considered a drug.  Drug's addictive properties are tapping into the appetite's pleasure network.  Therefore, the "feel good" feeling when you are eating is the same when you are high on drugs.  There is a difference between brain hunger and stomach hunger.  When the stomach churns, it is a reminder that a meal was missed.  With brain hunger, the body may not be hungry.  This is where "bordom eating" comes into play.  An individual may make themselves think they are hungry because they think about eating.  Determining the difference between brain hunger and stomach hunger is the key to weight control.  Some things cannot be controled:  leptin levels and the hypotalamus.  However, there are other measures that can be taken and other perspectives to be looked at.

Learning Perspective: Learning the difference between brain hunger and stomach hunger are very important, however, educating oneself about proper sleep, exercise and diet major step to getting on the right path to weight control and health management.  Once people have learned the proper and somewhat easy ways to lose weight, the journey into dieting and fittness becomes much easier.  People first need to realize that they don't have to change their entire lifestyle over night to become healthier and live more fulfilling lives...they can start off small and gradually increase. Weight control can be as easy or difficult as people make it out to be.  Some people look at the idea or dieting or exercise as a chore, a hassel, or something they don't have much time for.  Other people see eating right and daily exercise as a simple addition to their daily routine.  The key is, what you learn about diet and exercise and then how you approach it. 

Cognitive Perspective: According to Dr. Judith Beck, the cognitive approach works best for people to lose weight and to maintain the changes they have made in their eating.There are many important things to learn in order to lose weight according to the cognitive approach. (Peck, 2007, para 2). First, the dieter needs to educate themselves about dieting, food, and eating. This next family is very educated. In the article, “A New Food Attitude” the dieter knew she needed to make changes in her food attitude. She got rid of junk food and sweets in her house and joined a weight-loss center to learn healthier ways to eat. She changed the way she shopped for groceries. She bought plenty of fruits and vegetables. She also ate smaller portions which made them enjoy the food more (Thompson, 1997, 2). The dieter needs someone to keep them accountable and support them through this process. This family supports each other through their process together. In the article, “A New Food Attitude” the family supported each other in a many ways. They shared with each other what they learned. Her commitment to weight loss motivated her family to do the same. They stuck together through all the good, bad and funny times. They knew that they had to want to lose the weight. To help each other resist cravings, when they wanted the fattening foods they’d call each other to talk instead (Thompson, 1997, 2). The dieter needs to learn how to identify thoughts that will get in the way of meeting their goal. This family is very good at identifying these thoughts. They need to learn strategies for dealing with the difficult times and thoughts. For example, Phyllis in the article, “A New Food Attitude” would tell herself when she was shopping, “Phyllis, if you’re tempted by a fatty item, don’t look at that shelf, girl! Pass by that fat and look at floor tiles if you have to!” (Thompson, 1997, 2). This is supported by what Aaron Beck says in Weiten (2008). He says that you need to find ways to change negative thoughts. This author discusses the same thing. Dieters need to self-monitor themselves. They have to keep track of how many calories they eat a day and make sure they are exercising regularly. In the article, “A New Food Attitude” she got hooked on exercise which helped her keep her mind off eating. (Thompson, 1997, 2). Their thoughts and ways of thinking about food have to change forever, not just for a period of time.

Social Psychology Perspective: All these issues that people are concerned about that are relevant to Psychology. One major factor very important is Weight Control. There are so many different perspectives on this subject, I'll be doing the Social aspect. Weight Control plays huge factors in our everyday life and especially in our social life. It don't just affect one group of people or more, it affects the entire world. So what exactlly is Weight Control? It's how you control your weight, so you don't end up either obese or anorexic.

Obesity- Is simply the accumulation of excess body fat.

Anorexia- Involves intense fear or gaining weight, disturbed body image, refusal to maintain normal weight, and dangerous measures to lose weight.

Weight Control affects you as the individual but this does'nt mean that many people have influences on you. Now a days the influence from others is way higher than ever before. The main influences we have basically everyday are; Family, Friends, and probably the biggest one the Media. The way family plays a role in this is because alot of the times its not even your fault, its heredity. That can't be an excuse! No matter what family should realize what had happened to them and try to help the younger person, and make them realize that it's not a joke. Friends probably play the secound biggest impact of you. If your friends don't really care about their weight control and just eat non-healthy and whenever and don't really take care of their bodies most likely you will fit along with them. On the other hand, if your friends are all skinny and watch their weight everytime they eat a cheeseburger most likely you are not overweight. And the aspect that plays the biggest role in our lives is the Media. No matter what we have too see this everyday. We all get to see the celebrities with their banging bodies and no mistakes at all. We see that they have the perfect body and this drives us to do two things. Either stop eating so we can have the body like Angelina Jolie, Eva Longoria, Pual Walker or Brad Pitt. Or drive us to eat till we can't stop eating no more.

A recent survey in Dutchess County found that media has the greatest influence with the youth. This survey is now being used to reach out and help the children and the families in spreading the association's inititive on childhood obesity (Hudson Valley Journal 2007).

Weight-Control affects everyone in the world. Sixty-Six percent of adults in the U.S. are overweight or obese (Medline Plus 2008). If you think about that statement its crazy. Sixty-Six percent is way to high; it's rediculous to think that many people in the U.S. are overweight. The two reasons why people are overweight is because they are not active enough and they eat to much. In order to have a successful weight you have to establish a healthy diet. Developing a healthy diet is one of the best things you can do to help your overall health. Everyone needs to be active. When I say be active, I don't mean go run ten marathons a week, but  just stay active. For example take a walk once in a while, don't take the elevator at work all the time, and if you go to the store park far away and walk that extra distance. Without being active and establishing a healthy diet it can increase your chances of getting many problems down the road. Heart disease, cancer, stroke, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, breathing problems, arthritis, gallbladder disease, and osteoarthritis are all factors that you have to worry about if not active and if you eat unhealthy.  

Weight-Control is in our lives socially weather we like it or not. We have to eat everyday, and its not going away. One great example is Jared Fogle from Subway known as the Subway guy. Im sure everyone knows about him and what he did. He's known for his major weight loss attributed to eating Subway sandwiches. Jared was so overweight during high school and realized that if he didn't turn it around he was going to die by the age of 35 years old. Jared was 425 pounds and knew he needed a change. Along with a lot of walking he starting using the Subway diet. Now he's a campaign spokesman for Subway and has had over 50 commercials and is a phenomenon.

CONCLUSION:  As you can see there is a lot to take into consideration when attempting to understand the many facets of weight control within our society.  There are many factors that come into effect which have  been  adequately illustrated in the above text.  Biological, learning, cognitive, and social perspectives are all ways of approaching the issue of weight control.

Group members

Ashley Spooner

Justin Leo

Kaitlin Killeen

Nicholas Rock

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Sources

     1. (2007 August). Youth Media Preference survey released by Dutchess County Children's Services Council. 18(32), 6. Retreived April 16,  2008, from MasterFILE Premier database.

     2. 2008. Weight Control. Retreived April 16, 2008, from Medline Plus: htt://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlinplus/weightcontrol.html#cat5

     3. Write, Karen. "Consuming Passions." Psychology Today.  March/April 2008. Retreived April 19, 2008, from Science Direct database.

     4.Weight Management; New findings from University of Colorado describe advances in weight management. (2008, April). Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week,2195.  Retrieved May 12, 2008, from Research Library database.