Psychology †Biological Explanation of Eating Disorders Essay

The biological antenna projects that AN is cod a physical baffle, suggesting it could be ascribable to approximatelything within the body or originator such as hypothalamus dysfunction or an imbalance of neurotransmitters. The hypothalamus dysfunction surmise would suggest that animals ingest a confine freight which is correct for their body, if this weight should increase or decrease whence the body should limit adjust custodyts to regulate food intake to their set weight.The hypothalamus is thought to collapse kinda a lot of control everywhere our feeding behavior, the lateral hypothalamus (LH) is considered to be the victuals assemble that makes an several(prenominal) begin to fly the coop whereas the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) is the satiety switch that makes an somebody percentage point provide. Garfinkel and Gardner (1982) suggested that a gruesome hypothalamus may be the cause of AN, they proposed that either disturbance could star to either the LH or VMH to be constantly offsetd.In assign to pardon AN it is most equivalently that when the LH is modify and that the individual never receives a manoeuver (feeling hungry) to begin feeding, if the VMH were damaged hence the individual would receive a constant indicate to eat so they would never kick downstairs feeding. This curbs the idea that AN might have a biological score, specifically brain dysfunction.Anand and Brobeck conducted an taste involving the rats, they anchor that if the LH was damaged it could choose to aphagia (this is a failure to eat when hungry), this provides rear for the idea that damage to the hypothalamus tin asterisk to reduced ingest which is support for the biological turn up of AN. However, there are some concerns with this as the test was conducted with the use of animals so its hard to generalise the findings to valet.This is because military man and animals are biologically different so its hard to know if humans would resp ond in the same air if their LH was damaged. Additional look for has shown us that when the VMH in rats is stimulated that it stops feeding, which once more supports the suggestion that possible everyplace activation of the VMH could result in reduced feeding. This explore would similarly support the biological business relationship of AN as if an individual has damage to their hypothalamus because it could result in reduced feeding which would then result in dramatic weight loss, as seen in weatherers of AN.However, this opening is reductionist as it suggests that the only explanation of AN is a biological reason, and it ignores other factors like things such as stress or sexual abuse which can two lead to AN. Another biological explanation of AN would be that there is an imbalance of serotonin, which is commonly associated with depression and anxiety as disturbed levels of serotonin have been found in AN sufferers.It is also likely that eating disorders bear due to h igh levels of anxiety which is conjugated with high levels of serotonin in the body. Bailer et al (1970) compared serotonin activity in get anorexia suffers and healthy controls. They found significantly higher(prenominal) activity in the women that were recovering from anorexia, the highest levels found in those women with the highest anxiety levels. This also provides support for AN having a biological cause, in this eggshell an imbalance of neurotransmitters.However, its difficult to engraft cause and effect in Bailers research, this is because the women studied were already recovering from an eating disorder and so its unthinkable to know whether the imbalance of serotonin was the cause of the womens AN or whether the AN causes an imbalance of serotonin, so its hard to know whether or not there is a biological cause of AN with these findings. In addition to this the research is also gender biased, in this font its alpha biased as only women were used in this direct but it s generalising the study to men as well.Bailers research also raises the debate of determinism vs.free will. The biological ascend is settled so if an individual has an imbalance of serotonin they will then develop an eating disorder, however this is ignoring our free will as an individual that exercises regularly will over their eating this is noted in individuals who suffer from anxiety but dont develop AN. Finally there is the evolutionary approach which suggests that all our behaviours are adaptive, which factor that the reason we do certain things is to swear out us survive in a certain way according to this surmise AN is a behaviour which helps them survive.The evolutionary approach focuses on our ancestors, when weight loss and eating disorders werent a consideration and any weight loss would be a lack of food sooner than a desire for thinness. Usually when an individual begins to love weight physiological mechanisms activate in order to conserve button and increase des ires for food, however it would not have been adaptive for our ancestors to feel hunger as there may not have been much food available to them, so instead it would be adaptive to switch off the desire so that they could then find food in order to help our survival.Therefore many characteristics of AN can be considered adaptive to enable our ancestors to persist to areas where there was more food rather than being preoccupied by feeling for food in their current location. However, this theory doesnt explain the differences of AN between genders, as girls are more affected by AN than boys so if the behaviour was adapted then two men and women would be as effected by this as both genders would have had to search for more food in other areas.An alternative approach to explaining how AN would come from the behaviour approach, which suggests AN is the result of larn rather than a biological explanation. This approach suggests that individuals suffer from AN because of reinforcement, so they have witnessed lissome people (who become their role models) being rewarded for their behaviour so they imitate their behaviour in expectation of the same reward.