Explanations for Food Preferences (AQA A Level Psychology): Flashcards
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Define the environment of evolutionary adaptedness (EEA).
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Define the environment of evolutionary adaptedness (EEA).
The EEA is the environment in which human ancestors survived, where it was adaptive to develop preferences for foods that gave the best chance of survival.
Why would food preferences that aided survival become widespread?
Individuals with them were more able to reach sexual maturity, reproduce and pass on the genes underlying those preferences to their offspring.
What three problems did human ancestors face regarding food?
An unpredictable food supply, the threat of starvation and a high need to store energy.
Human ancestors preferred , non-poisonous foods such as sweet, fatty and salty foods.
Human ancestors preferred energy-dense, non-poisonous foods such as sweet, fatty and salty foods.
Why was a preference for sweet foods adaptive?
Sweet foods such as ripe fruit contain many calories and are rarely poisonous, whereas sour or bitter foods may be toxic (Simmen & Hladik, 1998).
Why was a preference for fatty foods adaptive?
Fatty foods are energy-dense. Meat is high in fat and calories, allowing humans to survive the long periods between one kill and the next.
Why is salt important to the body?
It is needed for conducting nerve impulses, contracting and relaxing muscles and maintaining water and mineral balance. Blood salt must be topped up as it is lost through sweat and the kidneys.
True or False?
Our preference for fast food is well matched to the modern environment.
False.
Krebs (2009) sees it as an evolutionary adaptation that now has a mismatch with our sedentary environment, where we have less need for energy-dense food.
Define neophobia.
Neophobia is an innate tendency to avoid new or unfamiliar foods. It has a protective function, as unknown foods could be toxic.
Neophobia is most pronounced in childhood, between roughly years, when children begin to explore independently.
Neophobia is most pronounced in childhood, between roughly two and six years, when children begin to explore independently.
How can a child's neophobic reaction to a new food be reduced?
Through repeated exposure to the food, once the child gets used to the taste (Birch, 1999).
Define taste aversion.
Taste aversion occurs when an individual becomes ill after eating a certain food and avoids it in future because they associate it with being ill.
True or False?
Taste aversion only develops if a person is ill several times after eating a food.
False.
It happens even if the person became ill only once, and even if they know the food did not cause the illness.
How do evolutionary psychologists explain taste aversion?
As biological preparedness (Seligman, 1971): being biologically predisposed to learn through experience to avoid foods that make us ill, which has adaptive survival value.
What did Bernstein and Webster (1980) find?
Adults given ice cream before chemotherapy developed a taste aversion to ice cream, associating their nausea with the food rather than the treatment that caused it.
How does Steiner (1977) support an innate preference for sweet tastes?
Newborn babies' facial expressions showed pleasure at a sweet taste and disgust at a bitter taste, before any learning could take place.
Knaapila et al.'s (2007) twin study found the heritability of neophobia was per cent.
Knaapila et al.'s (2007) twin study found the heritability of neophobia was 67 per cent.
How do taste receptors support the evolutionary explanation?
Humans have a single sweet receptor but around 25 bitter receptors, suggesting an evolutionarily determined need to avoid bitter, toxic foods.
How does Bell (1973) provide cross-cultural support for a sweet preference?
The Inuit, who had never tasted sweet food before, accepted it immediately.
Why are individual differences in taste sensitivity a problem for the explanation?
Drewnowski et al. (2001) found some people cannot detect the bitter compound PROP, an inherited insensitivity that is hard to explain evolutionarily.
True or False?
Evolutionary explanations can account for cultural differences in food preferences.
False.
They cannot explain cultural differences in food preferences and avoidances.
Why is the evolutionary explanation described as biologically deterministic?
It suggests eating behaviour is fixed by evolutionary pressures, leaving little room for personal agency and possibly reducing motivation to change unhealthy habits.
How does classical conditioning explain a food preference?
A food becomes associated with a positive experience, so it is preferred because of its pleasant associations.
Define flavour-flavour learning.
Flavour-flavour learning is a form of classical conditioning where a preference for a new food develops through its association with a flavour that is already liked, e.g. adding sugar to porridge.
How does operant conditioning explain children's food preferences?
When food is given as a reward for good behaviour, children develop a preference for that food.
True or False?
Rewarding a child for eating vegetables reliably increases their liking for them.
False.
The reward can undermine the preference, as the child infers that a food requiring a bribe must be undesirable.
Restricting a food that adults view as undesirable can the child's preference for it.
Restricting a food that adults view as undesirable can increase the child's preference for it.
Who are the key role models in the social learning of food preferences?
Parents, siblings and friends, whom children observe and imitate because eating is generally a social event.
Why do children's food preferences resemble their parents'?
Because they share the same environment, whereas evolutionary psychologists would see the preferences as inherited.
How does social learning explain cultural influences on eating?
Culture determines the food put on the table, so norms about what, how much and when to eat are learned through observation and imitation.
Give two reasons why cultures differ in food preferences.
Environmental reasons, such as the availability of certain foods, and religious beliefs.
Define acculturation.
Acculturation is when the food preferences of migrating groups adapt towards the diet of the host country.
What did Birch (1980) find using peer modelling?
After four days sitting beside peers who preferred a different vegetable, children had switched their preference, a change still evident several weeks later.
Lanfer et al. (2013) tested 1,700 children from eight European countries and found common food preferences.
Lanfer et al. (2013) tested 1,700 children from eight European countries and found no common food preferences, which is hard to explain if preferences are innate.
What did Boyland and Halford (2013) find?
TV food advertising influences children's preferences, with adverts for foods high in fat, salt and sugar having a stronger influence on overweight children.
What practical application does learning theory have?
It shows how parents can encourage children to learn healthy food choices through modelling behaviour.
True or False?
Research into parental influence on food preferences has good population validity.
False.
Studies are generally small-scale and conducted in Western societies, so findings cannot be generalised beyond Western samples.
Why is animal research a limitation for learning theory explanations?
Findings are difficult to generalise to humans, who have more complex cognitive processes that may affect eating.
Which side of the nature vs nurture debate does learning theory support?
Nurture, emphasising reinforcement, modelling and cultural exposure, in direct contrast to evolutionary explanations.
Learning theory is deterministic, downplaying free will in choosing to adopt or reject food preferences.
Learning theory is environmentally deterministic, downplaying free will in choosing to adopt or reject food preferences.
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