Date of Award:

5-2013

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Psychology

Committee Chair(s)

Michael P Twohig

Committee

Michael P. Twohig

Committee

Ginger Lockhart

Committee

David Stein

Abstract

Eating disorders (anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and eating disorder not otherwise specified) have a dramatic effect on the lives of people who struggle with them. Individuals struggling with these diagnoses often suffer from cardiovascular problems, hormonal irregularities, and gastrointestinal issues, such as wearing away of the esophageal lining. The biggest concern to clinicians is mortality resulting from physical complications related to an eating disorder or suicide. There is a growing body of research that attempts to describe the cognitive and emotional aspects of these diagnoses. Research has illustrated how suppressing emotions and thoughts, or avoiding situations that may make these thoughts and emotions arise, can function to maintain or increase the severity of these eating disorders. Therefore, a useful tool for clinicians would be a therapy that directly targets these types of cognitive/emotional avoidance, such as psychological flexibility. Psychological flexibility is the ability of an individual to contact unwanted thoughts and feelings and behave in a manner that is valued, even in the face of these negative experiences. The vast majority of research that has looked at the relationship of psychological flexibility and eating disorders has used typical college samples to gather data, with encouraging results. However, it is important to examine whether these relationships work within those struggling the most with eating disorders. This study employed a sample of individuals from a residential treatment facility—where people live for several months and focus exclusively on getting treatment for their eating disorders. The results from this study demonstrate that psychological flexibility is useful for treating eating disorders, by influencing an individual’s body dissatisfaction and quality of life (two critical outcome measures of eating disorder severity).

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