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

Introduction
This review will provide a summary of the literature concerning disordered eating, body
image and emotional processing. Emotional processing will be explored primarily from
an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) perspective due to the particular
interests of the author. The review will concentrate on the Western adolescent female
population as regards disordered eating and body image as the areas outside of this are
too wide to be covered here. Definitions and descriptions of the concepts will precede
further discussion and critical evaluation of the most relevant available literature. This
review will examine the potential effects of disordered eating and, therefore, why it is
worth studying. Furthermore, the relationship between disordered eating and body image
and their relation to emotional processing will be considered. Due to the scope of this
review, risk factors and protective factors for disordered eating will not be covered in
depth.
Disordered eating
Disordered eating will be defined and relevant prevalence studies considered in brief
before exploring the value of studying disordered eating.
Different studies operationalise disordered eating slightly differently depending on what
measures they use, but most consider behaviours to include:
1) Unhealthy dieting such as severe caloric restriction, the use of meal supplements
for weight loss or skipping meals
2) Unhealthy eating such as consumption of large quantities of high fat foods
3) Anorexic and bulimic behaviours such as laxative, diuretic and diet pill use, binge
eating, exercising obsessively and self- induced vomiting
(Jones, Marion, Bennett, Olmsted, Lawson and Rodin, 2001, Neumark-Sztainer, 2005).
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