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Summary AQA A level Psychology Paper 3 Eating Behaviour notes
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A detailed summary of the A level Psychology Eating Behaviour topic formatted in question and answer style to support your revision.
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🧠P3: eating behaviour
explanations for food preferences
evolutionary explanation
what is the main point of this explanation?
-genes are passed down if adaptive food preferences (food biases)
evolved if consumption aided survival
what is neophobia?
-an innate predisposition to avoid anything new (food in this case)
-develops during childhood at age 2-6
why is neophobia adaptive?
-we are less likely to consume substances which are dangerous and
cause illness
what are taste aversions?
-innate predisposition to learn to avoid potentially toxic foods which
are signalled by a bitter or sour taste
why are we biologically prepared to develop taste aversions?
-because of foods that posed greatest threat to our ancestors
survival
we are naturally averse to…. tastes?
-bitter tastes
how do we know that the aversion to bitter taste is natural and not
learned?
-Steiner (1977) found that newborns showed negative facial
expressions in response to bitter tastes which occurred before any
learning of taste preference= response to bitter foods is innate
why do we have an innate preference for sweetness?
P3: eating behaviour 1
, -reliable signal of high energy food which was adaptive to our
ancestors survival
-Steiner (1977) placed sugar on newborns tongues and found
positive facial expressions
-babies can also distinguish between different sugars which is why
they will consume large amounts of fructose which is especially
sweet
-fructose provides energy fast and is present in ripe fruits which
wouldve been favoured food for ancestors
how do we know we have an innate preference for salt?
-happens at around 4 months
-Harris et al (1990) found that babies (16-25 weeks) who had been
breastfed preferred salted cereal over unsalted
-breastmilk is low in salt= suggests that preference for salt is innate
and not learned
why do we have an innate preference for fat?
-high calorie foods provide lots of energy important for survival=
more adaptive than proteins or carbs for ancestors
explain 1 strength of this explanation for food preference
P= research to support
E= Torres et al (2008) reviewed studies into the link between stress
and eating behaviour and concluded that humans have an increased
tendency to prefer high fat foods during periods of stress
E= at such times the fight or flight response is activated which is an
evolved mechanism that helps us cope with stress but creates
greater demands for energy
L= an increased fat preference during times of stress supports the
view that such a preference is important for survival
explain 2 limitations of this explanation for food preference
P= neophobia is no longer adaptive in the modern food
environment
P3: eating behaviour 2
, E= most of the food we consume is sold by retailers and food
outlets subject to strict laws abt hygiene which means food is
safer and offers little threat to survival
E= caution abt trying new foods in childhood is used to protect
us from sickness and death but it now merely prevents us from
eating safe foods from young age
L= neophobia restricts a childs diet limiting access to a wider
variety of safe foods that provide nutritional benefits
P= individual differences in taste aversion as we would expect
all ppl to share the same adaptive food preferences but this isnt
the case
E= e.g. bitter tasting chemical PROP which is often associated
with foods that are potentially dangerous. Drenowski et al (2001)
found that ppl differ in their ability to detect PROP which we
wouldnt expect if it was an adaptive ability
E= seems like some adaptive preferences are not selected in the
way we would expect according to evolutionary theory
D= CP= evidence that PROP insensitivity is linked with other
traits that may have offered our ancestors survival benefits. e.g.
some bitter compounds like soy products and green tea may be
protective against cancer. those who dont detect bitterness are
eating foods which provide other benefits
L= suggests that a preference for bitter foods in out evolutionary
history could be an adaptive trait after all
role of learning in food preference
classical conditioning- flavour flavour learning
-develop a preference for new food because of its association with
a food we already like
-due to innate preference for sweetness many new foods are
preferred when sweetened e.g.porridge with sugar
-association eventually leads to liking of new food on its own
operant conditioning
P3: eating behaviour 3
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