Anorexia Nervosa

In Kristen Harrison and Joanne Cantor’s research study “The Relationship Between Media Consumption and Eating Disorder” they looked at media use by college age males and females and for females focused on relationship between media use and body dissatisfaction and drive for thinness. Body dissatisfaction and desire to be thinner represent two possible motives of a person who is at the beginning stages of Anorexia Nervosa in that one’s dissatisfaction with his or her body image may push them to begin to diet and exercise more. However, the media’s constant depiction of the need to lose more weight and to be thinner causes them to develop a distorted view of reality resulting in their dieting and exercise habits to spiral to extremely unhealthy …show more content…
According to University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine’s Walter H. Kaye, MD, “less than half of 1% of all women develop Anorexia Nervosa, which indicates to use that societal pressure alone isn’t enough to cause someone to develop this disease”, but rather that a person developing Anorexia Nervosa is “far more complex than simply wanting to be slim” (University of Pittsburg School of Health and Science 951). Kaye’s point is that societal pressure to be thin alone does not make someone develop an eating disorder, however he does mention that the effects of “societal pressure isn’t irrelevant” and that such pressures combine with certain traits such as being obsessive, anxiety, and perfectionism may trigger an eating disorder (951). The essence of Kaye’s argument is that the occurrence of Anorexia Nervosa in society is low, so societal pressure cannot be the sole factor in the development of an eating disorder, however it is possible that societal pressure can be a trigger when combine with certain underlying psychological