Instruments for measuring learned expectations for reinforcement from eating and from dieting and thinness were constructed and validated. Five eating reinforcement expectancies and 1 dietingthinness reinforcement expectancy were identified and their factor structure replicated on an independent sample. The expectancy that dieting and thinness lead to overgeneralized self-improvement characterized bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa patients and correlated with dieting behavior in a general sample. Expectancies for negative reinforcement from eating (e.g., eating helps manage negative affect) characterized bulimic but not anorexic individuals and were correlated with indexes of restraint plus disinhibition in a general sample. Positive reinforcement expectancies (e.g., eating is pleasurable and rewarding) were unrelated to disinhibited eating, but anorexic patients expected significantly less positive reinforcement from eating than did bulimic patients or controls.The aim of the present investigation was to develop reliable and valid measures of women's learned expectations for reinforcement from dieting and thinness and from eating. This effort represents an application of expectancy learning theory to the problem of eating disorders and has merit for two reasons. First, expectancy formulations have been applied fruitfully to a number of areas in psychology: They have informed both etiological and treatment models in the alcohol field (cf. Darkes & Goldman, 1993;Smith, Goldman, Greenbaum, & Christiansen, 1995) and have been applied to such diverse phenomena as operant conditioning, psychopathology, interpersonal processes, affect, hypnosis, and placebo effects (Goldman, Brown, Christiansen, & Smith, 1991). Second, expectancy operations appear implicit in a number of current eating disorder constructs, as described below.

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The factor-based meaning of these measures appears to be consistent across race. The measures correlate similarly across race, suggesting that the risk process may be similar for both races, but African American women endorsed significantly fewer risk factors and fewer symptoms.