Influence of personality attributes and daily moods on bulimic eating patterns.

Relationships among personality attributes, mood states, and eating patterns were examined in a nonclinical sample of females with bulimic symptomatology and binge eaters. Thirteen subjects in each group completed trait measures of depression, anxiety, hostility, and locus of control. Subsequently, they self-monitored affect and eating patterns over a 20-day period. Greater state depression, anxiety, and hostility all were associated significantly with subsequent daily binge eating, and with purging for bulimic subjects. The association of binge occurrence with state anxiety and hostility was significantly greater for bulimics than for binge eaters. Locus of control and trait hostility were important in influencing reactivity of binge eating to daily moods. As trait hostility and externality increased, reactivity of binges to negative mood states also increased.