DClinPsy Portfolio Volume 1 of 3 - University of Hertfordshire ...

Introduction
This study reports on an investigation into the role of inflexible emotional processing,
which includes experiential avoidance and cognitive fusion as defined by Acceptance and
Commitment Therapy (ACT), (Hayes and Batten, 1999). The importance of inflexible
emotional processing in relation to disordered eating and body image will be investigated
in adolescent females.
This introduction will first define disordered eating and then consider the recognised
importance of body image dissatisfaction in disordered eating in particular in relation to
emotional processing. The risk factors that have most commonly been found in
disordered eating and the consequences of disordered eating will be reviewed in brief.
Next will follow definitions of cognitive fusion and experiential avoidance which make
up the emotional process of inflexibility and the existing literature on this process will be
discussed as well as application of its reverse - flexibility to problems related to
disordered eating. Inflexibility has been usefully applied in the understanding of eating
disorders and obesity/weight control. It is proposed that if inflexibility is related to the
onset and/or maintenance of disordered eating, (i.e. is implicated as a risk factor or
flexibility as a protective factor), understanding of this emotional process will be
essential for the prevention and/or treatment of eating disorders and obesity.
Definition of disordered eating
Disordered eating refers to unhealthy eating behaviours such as severe caloric restriction,
the use of meal supplements for weight loss, skipping meals or the consumption of large
quantities of high fat foods. It also includes anorexic and bulimic behaviours such as
laxative, diuretic and diet pill use, binge eating, exercising obsessively and self- induced
vomiting but does not meet the criteria of Anorexia Nervosa (AN) or Bulimia Nervosa
(BN) (Neumark-Sztainer, 2005a).
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