Previous research done in the area of eating disorders suggests many different variables, such as cognitive, biological, and social, that are thought to influence eating disorder development and maintenance. The present study attempts to combine cognitive and sociocultural research findings, memory recall and critical body comments, in an effort to see how, if at all, these two variables affect eating disorder symptomology. Participants for this study were 120 female students that were recruited via Study Board. Participants completed the demographics form, the Eating Disorder Inventory-3 RF, and the Social Hassles Questionnaire. The participants then watched an E-prime presentation of different positive, negative, and neutral appearance and non-appearance related words. After this presentation, participants completed a word recall task in which they wrote down as many of the words from the presentation as they could remember. Results were consistent with previous research that has found a relationship between remembering a critical comment and subsequent negative emotions/ experiences and also research that has found a negative relationship between high body dissatisfaction and number of positive words recalled. Results also showed that eating disorder symptomology predicts less recall of positive words. Results from the present study shed light on the need for better treatment for those suffering from eating disorders or any amount of eating pathology, especially treatments aimed at increasing positive ways of thinking.
","abstract_html":"<p>Previous research done in the area of eating disorders suggests many different variables, such as cognitive, biological, and social, that are thought to influence eating disorder development and maintenance. The present study attempts to combine cognitive and sociocultural research findings, memory recall and critical body comments, in an effort to see how, if at all, these two variables affect eating disorder symptomology. Participants for this study were 120 female students that were recruited via Study Board. Participants completed the demographics form, the Eating Disorder Inventory-3 RF, and the Social Hassles Questionnaire. The participants then watched an E-prime presentation of different positive, negative, and neutral appearance and non-appearance related words. After this presentation, participants completed a word recall task in which they wrote down as many of the words from the presentation as they could remember. Results were consistent with previous research that has found a relationship between remembering a critical comment and subsequent negative emotions/ experiences and also research that has found a negative relationship between high body dissatisfaction and number of positive words recalled. Results also showed that eating disorder symptomology predicts less recall of positive words. Results from the present study shed light on the need for better treatment for those suffering from eating disorders or any amount of eating pathology, especially treatments aimed at increasing positive ways of thinking.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Littrell, Morgan"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts","degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":"Department of Psychology","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Dr. Frederick Grieve (Director), Dr. Andrew Mienaltowski, Dr. Amy Brausch"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2012,"date_issued":"2012-12-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2012-12-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T06:08:16Z","subjects":["cognitive psychology","health psychology"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/1226","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Dr. Frederick Grieve (Director), Dr. Andrew Mienaltowski, Dr. Amy Brausch"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Littrell, Morgan"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Department of Psychology"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["cognitive psychology","health psychology"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/1226"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Previous research done in the area of eating disorders suggests many different variables, such as cognitive, biological, and social, that are thought to influence eating disorder development and maintenance. The present study attempts to combine cognitive and sociocultural research findings, memory recall and critical body comments, in an effort to see how, if at all, these two variables affect eating disorder symptomology. Participants for this study were 120 female students that were recruited via Study Board. Participants completed the demographics form, the Eating Disorder Inventory-3 RF, and the Social Hassles Questionnaire. The participants then watched an E-prime presentation of different positive, negative, and neutral appearance and non-appearance related words. After this presentation, participants completed a word recall task in which they wrote down as many of the words from the presentation as they could remember. Results were consistent with previous research that has found a relationship between remembering a critical comment and subsequent negative emotions/ experiences and also research that has found a negative relationship between high body dissatisfaction and number of positive words recalled. Results also showed that eating disorder symptomology predicts less recall of positive words. Results from the present study shed light on the need for better treatment for those suffering from eating disorders or any amount of eating pathology, especially treatments aimed at increasing positive ways of thinking.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["The Relationship Between Eating Disorder Symptomology, Critical Body Comments, and Memory Recall"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Dr. Frederick Grieve (Director), Dr. Andrew Mienaltowski, Dr. Amy Brausch"],"dc:creator":["Littrell, Morgan"],"dc:description.abstract":["Previous research done in the area of eating disorders suggests many different variables, such as cognitive, biological, and social, that are thought to influence eating disorder development and maintenance. The present study attempts to combine cognitive and sociocultural research findings, memory recall and critical body comments, in an effort to see how, if at all, these two variables affect eating disorder symptomology. Participants for this study were 120 female students that were recruited via Study Board. Participants completed the demographics form, the Eating Disorder Inventory-3 RF, and the Social Hassles Questionnaire. The participants then watched an E-prime presentation of different positive, negative, and neutral appearance and non-appearance related words. After this presentation, participants completed a word recall task in which they wrote down as many of the words from the presentation as they could remember. Results were consistent with previous research that has found a relationship between remembering a critical comment and subsequent negative emotions/ experiences and also research that has found a negative relationship between high body dissatisfaction and number of positive words recalled. Results also showed that eating disorder symptomology predicts less recall of positive words. Results from the present study shed light on the need for better treatment for those suffering from eating disorders or any amount of eating pathology, especially treatments aimed at increasing positive ways of thinking.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/1226"],"dc:subject":["cognitive psychology","health psychology"],"dc:title":["The Relationship Between Eating Disorder Symptomology, Critical Body Comments, and Memory Recall"],"dc:type":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Department of Psychology"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T06:08:16Z"}