Describe Two Explanations of the Origins of Attitudes to Food and Eating Behaviour

Describe Two Explanations of the Origins of Attitudes to Food and Eating Behaviour. One explanation of the origins of attitudes towards food and eating behaviour is social learning theory, which emphasises the impact that observing other people can have on our own behaviour. Parents can have a massive effect over their children's eating behaviours for a variety of reasons. The first, and perhaps most obvious reason is that parents purchase and control the foods in their homes, and so the child would have little choice but to eat whatever their parent presented to them. The child would then grow up with this diet, and would ‘learn' it. Brown and Ogden reported consistent correlation between parents and their children in terms of snack intake, eating motivations, and body dissatisfaction. Another explanation of the origins of attitudes towards food and eating behaviour are cultural influences. Research has suggested that body dissatisfaction and related eating concerns are more characteristics of white women than black or Asian women. Ball and Kennedy found that for all ethnic groups, the longer the time spent in Australia, the more the women reported attitudes and eating behaviours similar to Australian women, and this is known as the ‘acculturation effect'. Other studies have found that social class can have an influence on body dissatisfaction and dieting behaviour, finding that they are more common in higher class individuals. Dornbusch studied 7000 American adolescents and found that higher class females show a greater desire to be thin, and were more likely to diet to achieve this. However other research disputes social learning theories conclusion and suggests that children do not just copy their parents. A study done by Birch and Fisher found that the best predictors of daughters eating behaviours were the mothers dietary restraints and their perception of the risk of the daughters becoming overweight. This disputes the idea that eating behaviour is affected by children directly copying their parents eating behaviour. However, this study was only carried out with mothers and daughters and so may suffer from gender bias. Social learning theory could also affects people's eating behaviours through their peers. This shows that more than just parents affects eating behaviour, as was previously implied. Meyer and Gast studied 10-12 year olds and found a significant positive correlation between peer influence and disordered eating. Although this study shows us much valuable information, we can generalise these findings to suggest how 10-12 year olds are affected. They cannot be an indicator for how older people may act, who may be considered to be less vulnerable to peer pressure. There are also many other obvious explanations as to our eating behaviours. For example, how we have evolved impacts a great deal on what we eat. We prefer fatty and sugary foods as these are what our distant ancestors would have needed to survive. Research has found that female white people are more preoccupied with their weight and participate in more weight loss behaviours. However a study by Mumford et al found that bulimia occurs more predominantly in Asian school children than their white counterparts. Striegel Moore et al also found that black girls have a higher drive for to be thin than white girls. Both of these studies contest the original idea, that White people have more eating problems. Dornbusch et al found that higher class females had a greater desire to be thin. However a study done by Story et al disputes this. They found the exact opposite, that higher social class meant greater satisfaction with weight and lower rates of weight control behaviour. This shows perhaps that there is no correlation between social class and eating behaviour. This was also suggested by other studies.

Environmental science Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Environmental science - Research Paper Example On the other hand, the quality of water is compromised in the essence that it is polluted on a number of occasions. In many regions, the availability of water in both quantity and quality is affected by climate variability and climate change, with more or less precipitation in different regions and more extreme weather events. Sanitation is the collection of waste safely, storing, treating of waste, and disposing it. In a nutshell the managing of waste presence in water is of importance. This is so that we are able to avert the various diseases as typhoid and cholera and to keep away from toxic substances to bring about economic benefits. In many developing and developed countries the use of piped sewer systems, pit latrines with slab, septic tanks is low. In addition, there are hanging toilets, latrines, most facilities are shared, in some instances there are no facilities, and the people use the bush or field for waste disposal. The use of piped water in dwelling units, boreholes, and methods of rainwater collection that are improved are low while on the contrast unprotected springs and the surface water as rivers, dams, and streams are high in developed and developing countries alike. Since time long ago, food and energy are fundamentals to life. This is because for a growing economy and political goodwill matters of food and energy must be addressed that crop up from generation of power and agriculture. For instance in the United States: 34% of water is used for agriculture, 48% is used for generating power and 18% for others (Forest Practices Board 79). However, in most developing and developed economies, agricultural production takes 70% generally of the water consumed (evaporation and transpiration or other means). Therefore, for irrigation purposes and improved agricultural production, generation of power there has to be a nexus in water, food, and energy (Forest Practices Board 86). There are projections on the rise of the sea level from 18 to 59 cm in 2090 -2099. This extreme event in association with a rise in the sea level will cause serious effects to human beings. With food being the major worry there would be increase in crop production in temperatures below 3 degrees Celsius and a decrease in a couple of areas. More people will be at risk of heart and breathe diseases, malnutrition, diarrhea, and extreme conditions of weather (Starrett 69). There may be contraction in the geographical area malaria will affect and an expansion elsewhere. The freshness of water would also be compromised due to melting, acidification, and increased population. Seasonal transmission periods will also change. To conclude the effects on climate change on human beings would bring more negative implications than benefits (United Nations 45). The lingering concern is for the protection of the environment. This is because climate change will lead to some regions becoming deserts; there would be increased warm intermediate flow beneath and a gradual grounding line movement. This will bring about destabilization in the form of food and energy production and the livelihoods of various citizens would be curtailed. Various economies would be mixed up and globally detrimental effects will be felt by alike. Case

An analysis of Animal Experimentation articles Essay

An analysis of Animal Experimentation articles - Essay Example The presented arguments by the doctors and research scientists (two experts in their field) indicate that this is a subject that divides opinion between informed, intelligent people. The clear issue in the debate revolves around morality and whether animal experimentation is necessary to safeguard human beings against potentially harmful new drugs and practices in medicine, and is vehemently supported by both sides. 2. Were the problems or issues expressed effectively? Describe how the problems or issues were or were not best expressed. The two articles vary on their ability to express the issues effectively. Lankford uses the article to defend the position of support towards animal experimentation. In this manner, the article does not address the issue but just seems to provide a list of statistics to prove his point. The work highlights a number of animal research achievements and how it has led to the prevention of disease but does not suggest any form of resolution of the issue. The Carlson article does attempt to resolve the issues. The work discusses that â€Å"we can learn to improve public health by looking first at what threatens it† (Carlson), indicating a willingness to seek a resolution. This viewpoint also acknowledges that it is vital to keep questioning forms of medicine and that it can be beneficial to look at the argument from different perspectives. 3. How would you determine the credibility of the sources of information used by the authors in the articles when investigating the problems or issues presented by your topic? The two articles appear to be fairly reliable and credible sources of information regarding the animal experimentation debate. The first, written by Lankford, was written for the Foundation for Biomedical Research. The group is in favor of animal experimentation and use medical facts and statistics to back up their claims. The author is clearly knowledgeable, although the article does not highlight his position in the organization. The second article is an expert opinion in the field of research science. Her work contrasts with the first, emphasizing that the results of animal experimentation have been grossly misjudged. Carlson relies on findings from University studies and medical journals to persuade her audience. In terms of credibility, both articles appear to be so, though Carlson does provide sources for the statistics used whereas Lankford states facts such using language such as â€Å"between 1950 and 2004† (Lankford) but fails to ascertain where they come from. 4. Compare two steps that would be most effective in refining solutions to the problem and resolutions to the issues presented by your topic. The animal experimentation debate is saddled with a number of issues concerning morality and ethics. For animal experimentation to be proven necessary and useful to society, it appears that more clear research and positive results are needed that link the success of medical improveme nts to the need to test them on animals. The main difficulties to overcome are the beliefs surrounding animal cruelty which animal extremist groups chiefly use as their main argument against animal experimentation. These groups will perhaps never be persuaded as to the benefits of animal experimentation but scholars such as Carlson indicates that there is no proof that animal testing is necessary to

Lindsay Anderson's View of British Class and Society Essay

Lindsay Anderson's View of British Class and Society - Essay Example He later became a film critic for the Sequence Magazine co-founded with his long life friends Karl Reisz and Gavin Lambert. He later wrote for Sight and Sound, a journal for the British Film Institute and the New Statesman, a left wing weekly. He lashed at contemporary critics and their objectivity pursuit in one article for Sights and Sounds. Anderson went on to develop a philosophy concerning cinema, which was christened the Free Cinema movement in the latter part of the 1950s. This philosophy held that cinema in Britain needed to break off from the class-bound attitudes it projected and that the national screens needed to be adorned with stories of non-metropolitan Britain. This paper seeks to examine three of Anderson’s films: â€Å"If...†, â€Å"O, Lucky Man†, and â€Å"Britannia hospital† and the view of British class and society that they provided. The use of the word new wave to describe cultural phenomena is a vital metaphor that when extended and scrutinised further allows one to picture the deep up currents and swellings that formed the wave (Allon, 2007 p7). These films challenged the old norms and were driven by an amalgam of social-democratic and liberal sentiments, which can ironically be viewed as a portion of the success of the economic boom in Britain that allowed the era’s youth to dream, in relatively secure economic mind-frames, about futures other than those that had been held as the norm. Perhaps a perfect example is If†¦, which came at the tail-end of the New Wave’s phase of social realism and had a nature that was ambiguous in both its recognition of a rapidly changing and expanding British future and its style, both in technique and theme. After his vital role in the Free Cinema movement development, he was involved integrally in the social realist filmmaking of the British New Wave (Anderson et al, 2007 p45). His movie This Sporting Life, based on flashbacks, was viewed as having too much intensity and purely naturalistic. In 1968, Anderson made If†¦, which exceeded the success of Sporting Life. This was the 1st and most successful film of the loose trilogy that included Oh Lucky Man and Britannia Hospital. While the last two were not as successful as the If, they are considered as films of their era. Anderson worked the script for if with David Sherwin, which was co-produced by Michael Medwin and the director. It was set in a great public school in Britain, where the ruling class of Britain traditionally schooled their sons in the use of power (Hedling, 2008 p32). The script attracted Anderson for its projection of schools as a microcosm, especially, in Britain where social system was mirrored in its educational system. The film’s photography work was done by Ondricek, with most of the film in black and white. Some of the scenes are in colour though this is done intuitively rather than rationally. The film has eight chapters, some of the chapters being â€Å"Resistance†, â€Å"Discipline†, and â€Å"College House† among others. These chapters are further sib-divided into short scenes (Hedling, 2008 p32). This division was, from the beginning, intended as a device of Brechtian alienation, succinctly reminding the audience that what they were watching was an artificial construct rather than reality. The film aimed at having a powerful objectivity element such as vital in all films targeting understanding. If†¦

What are the types of Discrimination Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

What are the types of Discrimination - Assignment Example Those that do not share the same beliefs will be subjected to hard work, working lengthy hours and working under unhealthy conditions (Roscigno, 2007). Perception discrimination is the second type of discrimination. Managers may discriminate an employee based on the perception that people have on the race of the employee. Some races are perceived to be intelligent while others are perceived to be foolish; hence, the manager will treat an employee based on that perception. Sexual orientation is also used by managers. Many times, women are perceived to be weaker than men hence men may end up getting the best position than the women. The third type of discrimination is indirect discrimination. The age of a worker may be a discriminating factor. For example, if the manager is old, opinion of the young employees will not be valued since there believe they don’t have experience in their work (Roscigno, 2007). Sexual harassment is the fourth type of discrimination. Sexual harassment is most common in many organizations, where the manager sexually abuse the employees for them to get promotion, easy jobs and to avoid punishment. Victimization is the fifth type of discrimination where a person is treated badly because of not supporting the manager; it may be due to complaint the person had filed against

Consumer behavior Individual Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Consumer behavior Individual - Assignment Example Apple’s main mission is to maintain high quality standards for its products and this helps them to serve its customers with an innovative and technologically advanced product line. Apple not only focuses on development of innovative products, but also protects consumer interest and values consumer welfare (OGrady, 2009). Apple is devoted to continuously develop innovative products so that their customers get to avail the latest technologies. The company’s vision is to provide exceptional technological experiences for their customers all over the world (OGrady, 2009). The company operates in a highly competitive market. Some potential competitors of Apple Inc are Samsung Electronics Co., Lenovo Group Limited, Dell Inc. and Microsoft Corporation. The competitors of Apple provided similar products at a reasonable cost. Companies like Samsung and IBM started capturing Apple’s market share. The products of Apple could not be afforded by all sections of the population. In the market for technology, consumers enjoy a high substitution rate of products because of the availability of large number of alternatives in the market (Barney, 1995). The market share of Apple Inc. and its competitors can be explained by the figure below. Apple Inc. captures the prime market share i.e. the company captures 30% of the total market share. Nokia covers over 23% of the total market share and Samsung has an 11% market share of the total. Other companies capture the rest of the market (Source: Ferrell & Hartline, 2012). Apple operates in a highly competitive market. Several companies have come up with products which are similar to Apple’s products. The rivals of the company follow a pricing strategy that enables them to offer alternatives to apple’s product at a relatively low price. There is a high substitution rate in the market as switching cost for the customers is quite low. The competitors also aggressively advertise their products through social media

Why we treat men and women differently Essay Example for Free

Why we treat men and women differently Essay The process of learning gender roles begins right when we are born. The first question people ask of a newborn is â€Å"Is it a boy or girl? † This question illustrates the importance of gender in organizing our expectations and perceptions of an individual. In American culture we tend to give boys and girls different types of toys to play with and dress infants according to gender. If you look at your baby pictures, you may find that you were often dressed in either blue or pink. One US study reports that 90% of the infants observed at a shopping mall were dressed in gendered colors and or styles (Shakin, Shakin Sternglanz, 1985). By the age of 3 children begin to accurately label people by sex (Fagot, Leinbach Hagen, 1986). Gender role socialization progress throughout life from various sources – parental expectations, modeling of gender roles by peers and images of males and females in the media all contribute to our ideas on what it means to be male or female. Gender role is a psychological construct that develops in children as they are socialized in their environments. As children become older, they learn specific behaviors and patterns of activities appropriate and inappropriate for their sex and they either adopt or reject those gender roles. Sandra Bem (1981) argues that gender is one of the fundamental ways we organize information and understand experiences about the world. The way we think of being male or female is a web of behaviors, attitudes, objects and conventions that are associated with being male and being female. We then use this web of preconceived notions to understand the people around us. To illustrate, lets look at the story of Stella, a senior high school student. Stella’s parents were egalitarian; they believed that gender should not hinder their daughter’s future. They wanted their daughter to grow up without the encumbrances of gender Perception of stereotypes affects our behavior Page #2 role stereotypes. They made sure that they trained her to be assertive, to be an achiever and always told her that being female should not hinder her from pursuing her dreams. True to her parents’ words, Stella was an outstanding student, had good leadership skills and had been accepted to a university that she wanted. However, Stella did not have many girl friends. She was not invited to slumber parties and girly stuff though she got along well with the boys. Then one day, she overheard the boys at school talking about her, one of them remarked that Stella was more of a boy than a girl and he wouldn’t want to go to the prom with her. Stella was stunned, she never thought of herself that way, she felt confused and hurt. The story tells us of Stella’s predicament. She was brought up to think that everyone can reach for his or her dreams and you simply have to work hard for it and this is what she did. But her peers see her as a misfit, the girls did not like her because she was not interested in girly stuff and the boys did not think of her as a girl. We can say that her peers are reluctant to accept Stella because she goes against the traditional gender roles. Majority of her peers have been socialized to think that girls should be emotional, gentle, beautiful and nurturing while boys should be tough, competitive and strong. Our preconceived notions of what a man /woman should be and what they should not be is always present in our daily interactions and in how we understand others. Children generally use the term sissy to label a boy who is not a bully and boys torment girls because they are weak and cannot keep up with them. We applaud men who are achievers, who are leaders, who can provide their family with all the comfort and luxury of life, while we scorn at women who exhibit the same traits because we think that a woman should not sacrifice her family for her career. Consequently we can observe that more and more women choose to be single or marry at Perception of stereotypes affects our behavior Page #3 a later age when they have reached their dreams. Even the sex double standard favors men over women, it is almost innate in us to be forgiving to husbands who have extramarital affairs because we rationalize that boys will always be boys. On the other end we become disgusted when we hear of a wife having extramarital affairs. Our judgment is clouded by our schemas rather than finding out the story behind the act. Gender stereotypes are actually the most ingrained and prevalent forms of stereotyping. It is present across cultures and affects all of us from birth to the day of our death. The way we relate to and are being related to is largely based on our gender. It has become a fundamental part of who we are as persons and even dictates what we become in life. Women generally pursue careers that are nurturing and man generally are in occupations that makes use of their power and authority. Stella in such an early age is confronted with her being not a typical girl and if she gives in to the pressure of being accepted by her peers then she might not become what her parents dreamed her to be. And the end question of whether gender stereotypes are negative or positive is not really the issue. Gender role socialization is a necessary function of society to maintain the status quo. Women are disadvantaged by these stereotypes because it limits their opportunity for personal growth, but at present we see a breaking away of the traditional gender roles into a more egalitarian form. More and more husbands have stayed home to care for the children, while more women are joining the work force and getting top positions in all the institutions of society. Thus, like Stella’s parents, we can dispel our gender role biases and hope that in the future our children would live their lives the way they want it to be, not because they are male or female.