Polivy J, Herman C P
Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
Int J Eat Disord. 1999 Sep;26(2):153-64. doi: 10.1002/(sici)1098-108x(199909)26:2<153::aid-eat4>3.0.co;2-r.
It has been shown that distress suppresses eating in nondieters (unrestrained eaters), but increases it in chronic dieters (restrained eaters). This study attempted to investigate several possible explanations for this phenomenon, in particular, the "masking hypothesis." This hypothesis states that dieters use overeating to mask their distress in other areas of their lives by eating when distressed so that they can attribute their distress to their overeating rather than to more uncontrollable aspects of themselves or their lives. In addition, comfort, learned helplessness, and distraction explanations were investigated.
Female college student subjects were led to believe that they had or had not failed at a cognitive task, then were either given ad libitum or just three small spoonfuls of ice cream to taste and rate.
It was predicted that restrained subjects who ate ad libitum following failure would attribute more of their distress to their eating than would those who were allowed only a taste of ice cream. The results were more complicated than predicted. They indicated that the masking, distraction, and helplessness hypotheses all received some support in the present study and that they may work in tandem with each other.
The results suggest that distress-induced overeating in restrained eaters may serve psychological functions for the individual, allowing for distraction from the distress or masking of the source of dysphoria. The possible relevance of these results to bulimic patients who may use their binges to mask the true source of their distress is discussed.
研究表明，压力会抑制非节食者（无节制饮食者）的进食，但会增加长期节食者（节制饮食者）的进食量。本研究试图探究这一现象的几种可能解释，特别是“掩盖假说”。该假说认为，节食者在感到痛苦时会通过暴饮暴食来掩盖生活其他方面的压力，以便将自己的痛苦归因于暴饮暴食，而非自身或生活中更难以控制的方面。此外，还对安慰、习得性无助和分心等解释进行了研究。
引导女大学生受试者相信自己在一项认知任务中成功或失败，然后要么让她们随意进食，要么只给她们三小勺冰淇淋品尝并评分。
预计在失败后随意进食的节制饮食受试者比只被允许品尝一口冰淇淋的受试者会将更多的痛苦归因于进食。结果比预期的更为复杂。结果表明，掩盖、分心和无助假说在本研究中均得到了一定支持，且它们可能相互协同作用。
结果表明，节制饮食者因压力导致的暴饮暴食可能对个体具有心理功能，能够分散对压力的注意力或掩盖烦躁不安的根源。还讨论了这些结果与暴食症患者的可能相关性，暴食症患者可能利用暴饮暴食来掩盖痛苦的真正根源。
