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The emotional and cognitive functions of comfort eating

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TitleInfo
Title
The emotional and cognitive functions of comfort eating
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Panza
NamePart (type = given)
Emily
NamePart (type = date)
1988-
DisplayForm
Emily Panza
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
author
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Selby
NamePart (type = given)
Edward A
DisplayForm
Edward A Selby
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
chair
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Leventhal
NamePart (type = given)
Howard
DisplayForm
Howard Leventhal
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
internal member
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Karlin
NamePart (type = given)
Robert
DisplayForm
Robert Karlin
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
internal member
Name (type = corporate)
NamePart
Rutgers University
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
degree grantor
Name (type = corporate)
NamePart
Graduate School - New Brunswick
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
school
TypeOfResource
Text
Genre (authority = marcgt)
theses
OriginInfo
DateCreated (encoding = w3cdtf); (qualifier = exact)
2015
DateOther (qualifier = exact); (type = degree)
2015-10
CopyrightDate (encoding = w3cdtf); (qualifier = exact)
2015
Place
PlaceTerm (type = code)
xx
Language
LanguageTerm (authority = ISO639-2b); (type = code)
eng
Abstract (type = abstract)
“Comfort eating” involves consuming highly palatable food in an effort to decrease negative emotion (Gibson, 2012). Despite existing empirical work demonstrating that comfort eating reduces negative emotion (Macht, 2008), recent research challenges these findings (Wagner et al., 2014) and raises questions about the functions of this behavior. To refine our understanding of comfort eating, the current study examined the functional impact of palatable food consumption on negative and positive emotion following stress, compared these effects to those produced by alternative coping behaviors, and examined the functional role of rumination. A community sample of 119 healthy men and women aged 18-31 years old underwent a 15-minute stress induction (Trier Social Stress Test; Kirschbaum et al., 1993), then engaged in 1 of 3 emotion regulation tasks: eating comfort food (M&Ms), using a stress relief ball, or sitting quietly. State emotion and rumination were assessed before stress, after stress, and after the randomized task. Repeated-measures MANCOVA analyses revealed that, while comfort eating significantly reduced negative emotion as expected, it was no more effective than doing nothing or using an alternative emotion regulation strategy. More promisingly, findings examining positive emotion demonstrated potential positive reinforcement functions of comfort eating. While both participants who used a stress ball and those who sat quietly experienced significant declines in positive emotion throughout the experiment, comfort eaters displayed steady levels of positive emotion. Findings also shed light on the role of rumination in comfort eating, as all emotion regulation tasks in this experiment were more negatively reinforcing and less positively reinforcing for high versus low state ruminators. Collectively, these findings suggest that comfort eating may be complexly reinforced through multiple pathways, including both positive reinforcement and, particularly among high state ruminators, negative reinforcement. Given this, future research on comfort eating should examine the roles of positive emotion and rumination in understanding and treating comfort eating.
Subject (authority = RUETD)
Topic
Psychology
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = RULIB)
ETD
Identifier
ETD_6864
PhysicalDescription
Form (authority = gmd)
electronic resource
InternetMediaType
application/pdf
InternetMediaType
text/xml
Extent
1 online resource (vi, 69 p. : ill.)
Note (type = degree)
M.S.
Note (type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Food habits--Psychological aspects
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Eating disorders
Note (type = statement of responsibility)
by Emily Panza
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Graduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = local)
rucore19991600001
Location
PhysicalLocation (authority = marcorg); (displayLabel = Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)
NjNbRU
Identifier (type = doi)
doi:10.7282/T3HH6N2Z
Genre (authority = ExL-Esploro)
ETD graduate
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Rights

RightsDeclaration (ID = rulibRdec0006)
The author owns the copyright to this work.
RightsHolder (type = personal)
Name
FamilyName
Panza
GivenName
Emily
Role
Copyright Holder
RightsEvent
Type
Permission or license
DateTime (encoding = w3cdtf); (qualifier = exact); (point = start)
2015-10-07 11:05:04
AssociatedEntity
Name
Emily Panza
Role
Copyright holder
Affiliation
Rutgers University. Graduate School - New Brunswick
AssociatedObject
Type
License
Name
Author Agreement License
Detail
I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.
Copyright
Status
Copyright protected
Availability
Status
Open
Reason
Permission or license
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Technical

RULTechMD (ID = TECHNICAL1)
ContentModel
ETD
OperatingSystem (VERSION = 5.1)
windows xp
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