Chapter 10 - Motivation

1. Chapter 10 - Motivation Anti-fat Attitudes Student will assess their attitudes toward obese individuals

2. Motivation Hunger Sexual Belong Achievement

3. Motivation Hunger • The Physiology of Hunger • The Psychology of Hunger • Obesity and Weight Control

4. Obesity and Weight Control Fat is an ideal form of stored energy and is readily available. In times of famine, an overweight body was a sign of affluence.

5. Obesity A disorder characterized by being excessively overweight. Obesity increases the risk for health issues like cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, and back problems. http://www.cyberdiet.com

6. Body Mass Index (BMI) Obesity in children increases their risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, gallstones, arthritis, and certain types of cancer, thus shortening their life-expectancy.

7. Obesity and Mortality The death rate is high among very overweight men.

8. Anti-Obese Attitudes • A recent USA Today survey (reported in Pollwatch, The Week, May 12, 2006) reveals that Americans have strong anti-fat attitudes.

9. Anti-Obese Attitudes • More than half of Americans indicate that they would rather be unemployed than fat. • 58 percent of women and • 54 percent of men state that they would rather lose their jobs than gain 75 pounds. • 63 percent of women and • 55 percent of men would rather be poor and slim than rich and overweight.

10. Anti-Obese Attitudes Questionnaire • Christian Crandall’s Question­naire has been used in studies of weight prejudice and discrimination

11. Anti-Obese Attitudes Questionnaire Respond to the questionnaire in the following way: Score each item from 0 – 9. 0=strongly disagree 9=strongly agree

12. Anti-Obese Attitudes Questionnaire • Scores are obtained by adding the numbers in response to all 13 items and calculating the mean. • Those mean scores can range 0.00 to 9.00, with higher scores reflecting a stronger antifat attitude. • Total all items and divide by 13 (you might need to use a calculator to do this)

13. Male undergraduates in a psychology class obtained mean scores of: Dislike of fat: 2.47 Fear of fat: 3.55 Willpower factors: 6.12 Female undergraduates in the same psychology class obtained mean scores of : Dislike of fat: 1.85 Fear of fat: 6.78 Willpower factors: 5.65 Anti-Obese Attitudes Questionnaire • Males scored higher on dislike and slightly higher on willpower than females; • Females scored notably higher on fear of fat

14. Anti-Obese Attitudes Questionnaire Factor analysis of the items revealed three factors: • Dislike: The first factor is an evaluative scale and represents the respondent’s dislike of overweight people (items 1–7) • Fear of fat: The second factor is labeled fear of fat and reflects the respondent’s personal concern over becoming overweight (items 8–10) • Willpower: The third factor is labeled willpower and assesses the respondent’s belief about the controllability of weight and being overweight (items 11–13)

15. Anti-Obese Attitudes Questionnaire • Crandall reported that: • Belief in a just world, • a conservative political ideology, • acceptance of the Protestant ethic, • modern racism, and • authoritarianism all correlated positively with both dislike of fat and willpower scale scores. • Of these same variables, only authoritarianism correlated with fear of fat, and the correlation was negative. • What does a positive correlation mean? • What does a negative correlation mean?

16. Anti-Obese Attitudes Questionnaire • Cross-cultural analysis suggests: • simultaneous presence of two variables leads to antifat attitudes: • a personal or cultural preference for thinness and • the belief that weight is volitionally controlled. • In short, one must think fat is undesirable and simultaneously blame the person for his or her situation.

17. When women applicants were made to look overweight, subjects were less willing to hire them. Social Effects of Obesity

18. Physiology of Obesity Fat Cells: There are 30-40 billion fat cells in the body. These cells can increase in size (2-3 times their normal size) and number (75 billion) in an obese individual (Sjöstrum, 1980).

19. Set Point and Metabolism When reduced from 3,500 calories to 450 calories, weight loss was a minimal 6% and the metabolic rate a mere 15%. The obese defend their weight by conserving energy.

20. The Genetic Factor Identical twin studies reveal that body weight has a genetic basis. Courtesy of John Soltis, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY The obese mouse on the left has a defective gene for the hormone leptin. The mouse on the right sheds 40% of its weight when injected with leptin.

21. Activity Lack of exercise is a major contributor to obesity. Just watching TV for two hours resulted in a 23% increase of weight when other factors were controlled (Hu & others, 2003).

22. Food Consumption Over the past 40 years, average weight gain has increased. Health professionals are pleading with US citizens to limit their food intake.

23. Losing Weight In the US, two-thirds of the women and half of the men say they want to lose weight. The majority of them lose money on diet programs.

24. Plan to Lose Weight When you are motivated to lose weight, begin a weight-loss program, minimize your exposure to tempting foods, exercise, and forgive yourself for lapses. Joe R. Liuzzo

25. Summary