Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EATING DISORDERS
Volume 38, Issue 1, Pages 30-36Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/eat.20147
Keywords
anorexia; bulimia; cognitive processing; avoidance; ego threats
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Background: This study of strategic processing examined whether it is possible to demonstrate cognitive avoidance of ego threats in women with eating disorders, using a task that involves less automatic identification of threat cues. Method: Fifty eating-disordered (anorexic and bulimic) and 50 comparison women completed a task of strategic processing, assessing their speed of solving neutral, food-related, and ego threat-related anagrams. Results: Cognitive avoidance of threat-related information was shown, but only among women with bulimic characteristics. The presence of bulimic behaviors (hinging and vomiting) was the clearest factor associated with such avoidance. There was no evidence of avoidance of disorder-related (food) cues. Discussion: Research and therapeutic implications are discussed, including the potential utility of therapies that directly or indirectly address the schema-level representation of ego threats when working with eating pathology. (c) 2005 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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