Emotion Recognition in Anorexia Nervosa - Article Example

? Article review 22 June The article to be reviewed is en d “Emotion recognition and regulation in anorexia nervosa” by Harrison, Sullivan, Tchanturia, and Treasure (2009). 1. The topic The topic is emotion recognition, regulation, and expression among subjects with anorexia nervosa (AN). This topic explores the emotional intelligence dimension of the eating disorder anorexia nervosa. 2. Why it is scientifically and/or clinically important This is clinically important, because as Harrison et al. (2009) stressed, emotional problems underlie eating disorders, and yet there is “scant attention paid to specific aspects such as emotional recognition, regulation and expression” (p.348). If clinicians know more about these aspects of emotional intelligence of their AN patients, they can help the latter improve their emotional functioning skills as part of their core treatment approaches. Clinicians would then be more sensitive to identifying emotional functioning skills deficits and help their patients with eating disorders manage their emotions more effectively. 3. How the author’s literature review supports the authors’ choice of hypotheses The author’s literature review showed support to the authors’ choice of hypotheses, by describing studies that showed that people with eating disorders tend to have emotion recognition deficits. For instance, Harrison et al. (2009 cited in p.349) illustrated the study by Zonnevijlle-Bender and colleagues, where they used three separate studies and discovered deficits in emotion recognition in people with an ED. Furthermore, Harrison et al. (2009) used literature on bingeing and restriction to explore the difficulties of people with eating disorders in managing their emotions. They mentioned studies that relate that problems in identifying the emotions of others can also lead to dysfunctional emotion regulation practices, such as using impulsive behaviors to regulate affect (Harrison et al., 2009, p.349). 4. The experimental hypotheses The authors presented two hypotheses. First, people with AN would show they had greater difficulties in emotional regulation and would give fewer correct responses on a task of emotion recognition than control participants (Harrison et al., 2009, p.350). Second, there would be a relationship between emotion recognition and emotion regulation (Harrison et al., 2009, p.350). 5. Independent/predictor and dependent/criterion variables The independent variable is the ailment of AD. The dependent variables are emotion regulation and emotion recognition. 6. Operational definitions of the variables Anorexia Nervosa (AD) is diagnosed using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV. The authors no longer defined AD itself, aside from connecting it with the dependent variables of emotional recognition and emotional regulation. The authors did mention, however, that “disordered eating is used to regulate affect” and that according to Mayer, Waller and Walters (1998) “eating pathology” aims to “block emotions” and ED behaviors commonly consist of “bingeing, vomiting and restriction may be used in order to regulate and manage painful emotional states experienced by the individual” (Corstorphine, 2006 cited in Harrison et al., 2009, p.350). Emotion recognition pertains to the ability to accurately perceive emotions in “faces, music and designs” (Mayer, Caruso, & Salovey, 1999 cited in Harrison et al., 2009, p.349). Emotion regulation refers to the ability to “manage emotions in the self and others” (Harrison et al., 2009, p.350). Emotion recognition was measured using Emotion Recognition: The RME Task (revised) (Baron-Cohen et al., 2001). Emotion regulation was measured using The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS; Gratz & Roemer, 2004). 7. The research subjects The research subjects consisted of twenty female participants with AN and twenty female healthy control (HC) participants. Participants with AN were came from the South London and Maudsley National Health Service Foundation Trust ED services or through the Institute of Psychiatry’s Eating Disorder Research Unit’s volunteer database. HCs came from the local community using advertisements and posters. 8. Apparatus (if any) Aside from the RME Task and DERS scale, the other apparatuses used are the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) (Zigmond & Snaith, 1983) to obtain background data and the Obsessive Compulsive Inventory (OCI) (Foa et al., 2002). The Eating Disorder Diagnostic Scale (Stice, Telch, & Rizvi, 2000) was also used as a screening tool for HCs to guarantee the nonexistence of a potential ED. The National Adult Reading Test (NART) (Nelson & Willison, 1991) was also employed as an estimation of intelligence quotient (IQ). 9. Design This is a correlational design, where the authors want to study the correlation between emotional functioning and AN. 10. Specific experimental design This is not an experimental design, but rather a correlational research design. The authors want to understand the correlation between emotional functioning and AN. 11. Procedure For the RME Task, the participants are presented with 36 photos which illustrate only the eye area of the face. The photos are surrounded with four words and the participant is asked to choose the word which most closely matches what the person in the picture is thinking or feeling. For the DERS, participants are asked to rate their responses across a five-point scale. Higher answers designate more problems with emotion regulation. 12. How the results support or fail to support the hypotheses Findings showed that participants with AN scored lower in the RME Task and the DERS and this means that they have problems in emotion recognition and regulation. The findings also supported that emotion recognition and regulation are connected, where problems in emotion recognition can lead to problems in regulating emotions. 13. The theoretical and/or practical implications of the findings The theoretical implications of the findings are that AN also can be characterized by low emotion recognition and regulation and this can be further examined in people with bulimia and other eating disorders, and that it is also possible to correlate that difficulties in emotional functioning pushes people with AN to become more socially isolated than people without eating disorders. It will be interesting to study emotional dimensions of eating disorders further and provide more empirical evidence on how treating emotional functioning deficits can drastically improve the ability of people with eating disorders to permanently resolve the fundamental emotional problems that lead to their eating disorders. The practical implications of the findings are in the use of emotional regulation skills in treating eating disorders and developing clinical measures that can further analyze and understand the range of emotional problems of people with AN. Clinicians can benefit from understanding their patients’ emotional regulation skills and how they can be further improved to treat various eating disorders that have underlying core emotional problems. 14. The possible flaws or limitations of the study The possible flaws of the study are that the sampling is too small to represent people with AN and that it is probable that it has not considered that some people with AN may score low in emotion recognition, but still high in emotional regulation. They can still score high emotional regulation, since they use dysfunctional eating disorders to manage their affects. It is possible that they have turned the norm of emotional regulation without fully recognizing it. The sampling of twenty people with AN is also too small for the results to be considered as generalisable or with high external validity. Furthermore, the study does not specifically analyze anymore the relationship between emotion recognition and emotion regulation. I only inferred that poor emotion recognition can lead to poor emotion regulation. The authors should have explored the relationship further, either by citing other studies that confirm this relationship or by suggesting future research on this matter. Reference Harrison, A., Sullivan, S., Tchanturia, K., & Treasure, J. (2009). Emotion recognition and regulation in anorexia nervosa. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 16 (4), 348-356. Read More