PSY203: When the Subject of Eating Disorders is Considered, Most People Associate These with Teenagers or Young Adults: Abnormal Psychology Research Paper, Singapore

Question 1
When the subject of eating disorders is considered, most people associate these with teenagers or young adults. However, eating disorders can affect young children as well. The rates of eating disorders among young girls and boys under 12 have been growing in recent years, so it is important for parents and anyone who works with young children to recognize the signs.

a) Explain the differences in the prevalence and the clinical presentation of Eating Disorders among children (under the age of 12 years) and adolescents.

b) “Unwanted intrusive cognitions are sudden and discrete thoughts, images or impulses that are experienced as being difficult to control and interfere with ongoing activity because they tend to be repetitive and, in most cases, unacceptable” (Clark, 2005). This modality of cognitions has been the main focus of interest in the research on obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Since then, these cognitions have also been described in other mental disorders such as eating disorders. Given some of the overlapping traits and features of eating disorders and OCD, treatment providers struggle to differentiate the disorders. Some hold the view that they are two different disorders and others see ED as a variant form of OCD.

Are eating disorders a variant form of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders? Discuss.