Psychology †Biological Explanation of Eating Disorders Essay

The biological fire suggests that AN is due a physical run, suggesting it could be due to something within the body or brain such as hypothalamus dysfunction or an imbalance of neurotransmitters. The hypothalamus dysfunction theory would suggest that animals have a bun in the oven a set metric free weight unit which is correct for their body, if this weight should increase or decrease then the body should make adjustments to regulate sustenance inhalation to their set weight.The hypothalamus is thought to have quite a clutch of control over our consume demeanor, the lateral hypothalamus (LH) is considered to be the supply take turns that makes an one-on-one(a) begin to feed whereas the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) is the satiety switch that makes an individual time period feeding. Garfinkel and Gardner (1982) suggested that a disturbed hypothalamus may be the micturate of AN, they proposed that any mental disorder could attract to either the LH or VMH to be const antly activated.In order to explain AN it is most believably that when the LH is damaged and that the individual neer receives a signal (feeling hungry) to begin feeding, if the VMH were damaged then the individual would receive a constant signal to eat so they would never stop feeding. This supports the idea that AN might have a biological report, specifically brain dysfunction.Anand and Brobeck conducted an experiment involving the rats, they found that if the LH was damaged it could lead to aphagia (this is a failure to eat when hungry), this provides support for the idea that damage to the hypothalamus can lead to reduced have which is support for the biological approach of AN. However, in that location are some concerns with this as the test was conducted with the use of animals so its badly to generalise the findings to humans.This is because humans and animals are biologically different so its elusive to know if humans would respond in the same stylus if their LH was damaged. Additional research has shown us that when the VMH in rats is stimulated that it clams feeding, which again supports the suggestion that possible over activation of the VMH could government issue in reduced feeding. This research would also support the biological explanation of AN as if an individual has damage to their hypothalamus then it could result in reduced feeding which would then result in dramatic weight loss, as seen in sufferers of AN.However, this theory 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 informal abuse which can both lead to AN. Another biological explanation of AN would be that on that point is an imbalance of serotonin, which is usually associated with depression and anxiety as disturbed levels of serotonin have been found in AN sufferers.It is also likely that eating disorders arise due to eminent levels of anxiety which is linked with high l evels of serotonin in the body. Bailer et al (1970) compared serotonin activity in regain anorexia suffers and healthy controls. They found significantly higher 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 movement an imbalance of neurotransmitters.However, its difficult to establish cause and effect in Bailers research, this is because the women studied were already recovering from an eating disorder and so its impossible 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 case its alpha biased as only women were used in this study scarcely its generalising the study to men as well.Bailers research als o raises the debate of determinism vs.free allow. The biological approach is deterministic so if an individual has an imbalance of serotonin they will then develop an eating disorder, as yet 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 conducts are adaptive, which means that the reason we do certain things is to table service us survive in a certain way harmonise to this theory 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 rather than a desire for thinness. Usually when an individual begins to love weight physiologic mechanisms activate in order to conserve energy and increase desires for food, however it would not have been adaptive f or 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. thus many characteristics of AN can be considered adaptive to enable our ancestors to move to areas where there was more food rather than being preoccupied by face for food in their current location. However, this theory doesnt explain the differences of AN amidst genders, as girls are more affected by AN than boys so if the behaviour was adapted then both men and women would be equally accomplished 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 learning rather than a biological explanation. This approach suggests that individuals suffer from AN because of reinforcement, so they have witnessed slim people (who become their ro le models) being rewarded for their behaviour so they imitate their behaviour in expectation of the same reward.