Dieting 133in terms of factors such as “giving in,” “resignation,” and “passivity.” In
particular, interviews with restrained and unrestrained eaters revealed that
many restrained eaters reported passive cognitions after a high-calorie preload,
including thoughts such as “I’m going to give into any urges I’ve got” and
“I can’t be bothered, it’s too much effort to stop eating” (Ogden and Wardle,
1991). In line with this model of overeating, Glynn and Ruderman (1986)
developed the Eating Self-Efficacy questionnaire as a measure of the tend-
ency to overeat. This also emphasized motivational collapse and suggested
that overeating was a consequence of the failure of this self-control.
An alternative model of overeating contended that overeating reflected
an active decision to overeat, and Ogden and Wardle (1991) argued that
implicit in the “What the Hell effect” was an active reaction against the
diet. This hypothesis was tested using a preload/taste-test paradigm and
Figure 7.5 A comparison of the boundaries for different types of eating.
(Source: C.P. Herman and J.A. Polivy, A boundary model for the regulation of
eating, in A.J. Stunkard and E. Stellar (eds.) Eating and Its Disorders, New York:
Raven Press, 1984, pp. 141–56.)
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