An additional study of food aversions.

Abstract

W ALLEN has analyzed the food aversions of normal and neurotic males at a Marine training station (2), and has described a list of 20 foods which can be used in studying food dislikes (3). The following brief study utilizes this list, and the general method of the former paper, in order to provide comparable findings. PROCEDUREA neurotic group of 79 white and colored male patients from the neuropsychiatric section of the station hospital was selected. This group included 8 mild psychoneurotics, 27 moderate psychoneurotics, 35 severe psychoneurotics, and 9 psychopathic personalities. The diagnoses were made by competent psychiatrists, in accordance with the usual criteria. A normal group of 254 soldiers who had been screened for psychiatric disorders at an Army Service Force's personnel replacement depot, prior to being sent overseas, was also selected. The normal and experimental group were adequately matched for age, race, education, Army test scores, and state of origin.The list of 20 foods was read to each subject by one of the examiners, and aversions, as well as the reasons for dislikes, were recorded. The food list is as follows: tea, grapefruit juice, bean soup, potato soup, salmon, beef steak, veal chops, chicken, fried eggs, cottage cheese, swiss cheese, lima beans, cabbage, corn, mushrooms, radishes, tomatoes, cantaloupe, cherries, and pears.

What is the link between personality and food behavior?

“…This result was taken to suggest that food novelty may be important in terms of the correlation between an individual's food-preferences and their sensation-seeking behaviour. Such findings, note, fit with earlier observations suggesting that neurotically anxious individuals tend to have a greater number of food aversions than normal ( Gough, 1946 ; Wallen, 1945 ). Otis ( 1984 , p. 743) wound-up concluding that: “In light of the relatively low correlations between the general personality measures and willingness to try new foods, this result suggest that patterns of food choice may be quite independent of general preferences and responses in other areas of life ( Rozin and Schiller, 1980 ).” Note that Otis based this conclusion on the fact that the willingness to taste unusual foods appeared largely unrelated to preferences for engaging in other kinds of novel, or risky, activity.…”

The Measurement of Food Attitudes and Personality Characteristics of U.S. Air Force Personnel in Alaska

“…However , the means for two normal groups were 0.99 and 1.28, respectively. Gough (1946)h ad similar results with means of 5.14 and 1.23 for neurotic and normal groups respectively Smith , Powell and Ross (1955)~ -~ found a mild positive relationship between food aversions and Tay lor Manifest Anxiety scores.…”

Adler's concept of social interest: Theory, measurement, and implications for adjustment.

“…Two early studies (Gough, 1946;Wallen, 1945) found food aversions to be more frequent among neurotic than among normal populations. Therefore, it was predicted that SIS scores would be inversely related to food aversion.…”