Sense of ineffectiveness in women with eating disorders: A clinical study of anorexia nervosa and bulimia

Abstract

In the present study, equal numbers of patients with anorexia nervosa and bulimiawere compared with noneating‐disordered control subjects on the Block Ego Control Scale, Adjective Check List Autonomy Scale, and Embedded Figures Test. The anorexics displayed significantly greater ridigity of control than the noneating‐disordered subjects, whereas the bulimics could not be distinguished from either of the other two groups on this dimension. Although there were no group differences in self‐ascribed level of autonomy, both eating‐disordered groups were significantly more field dependent than the control group, suggesting a diminished capacity for autonomous functioning in patients with these disorders. The results are seen as supporting Bruch's thesis that anorexics manifest a rigid overcontrolling ego style as a compensation for a deficit in self‐directed autonomy. Bulimic patients appear to experience a similar deficit in their capacity for autonomous functioning, although their mode of monitoring impulse may be more variable.

Self-control deficits and eating problems: A reexamination

“…Other self-control defecits, however, were supported: there was a tendency for HEDI scorers to be less likely to attribute their performance to ability and more likely to attribute good performance to effort and situational factors. With the exception of effort attributions, this tends to be in line with studies which have shown that people with eating problems are more influenced in their behavior and beliefs by external as opposed to internal factors (Garfinkel, 1981;Mclaughlin et al, 1985;Weiss & Ebert, 1983).…”

Ego functioning in eating disorders: Description and relation to diagnostic classification

“…Such differences in personality style (e.g., social acting out versus social isolation) are compatible with no differences in level of ego pathology. In the same vein, McLaughlin, Karp, and Herzog (1985) concluded that both anorexics and bulimics manifested similar deficits in self-directed autonomy, but that anorexics used a rigid overcontrolling ego style to compensate for it, whereas bulimics were more impulsive in their ego styles. The observation by Johnson and Connors (1987) concerning maternal overinvolvement versus underinvolvement in the child producing restricting versus bulimic adaptation to a similar basic psychopathology also seems to point in the same direction.…”

Interpersonal Motives in Anorexia Nervosa: The Fear of Losing One's Autonomy

“…McLaughlin et al. () found that patients with anorexia nervosa did not differ from healthy controls in terms of self‐ascribed autonomy (i.e., taking action, regardless of other people's evaluations). Correspondingly, Strauss and Ryan () did not find differences between patients with anorexia nervosa and healthy controls regarding self‐reported interpersonal autonomy (i.e., perceiving others as autonomy‐supporting or not).…”

“…Correspondingly, Strauss and Ryan () did not find differences between patients with anorexia nervosa and healthy controls regarding self‐reported interpersonal autonomy (i.e., perceiving others as autonomy‐supporting or not). However, McLaughlin et al () showed that patients with anorexia nervosa as well as patients with bulimia nervosa were more field‐dependent. Field dependence was considered as “the tendency for perception to be dominated by the overall organization of the field, so that parts of the field are experienced as fused” (McLaughlin et al., , p. 516).…”