3003PSY Assignment 2021

Investigating the associations between personality, gender, and body mass with repetitive eating

Study Overview

You may have noticed that when you are spending a lot of time at home, or studying, that you may be eating more than you usually do, even when you aren’t hungry. You may have even have heard the phrase “COVID Kilos” - a term that refers to the weight gain some people experienced after working and studying at home more over the past year . Some researchers have termed this constant unplanned repetitive eating of small amounts of food and/or eating in the absence of actual hunger as “repetitive eating” or “grazing” (Conceição et al., 2014). This type of eating is commonly found in those undertaking bariatric surgery and those with binge-type eating disorders, but also frequently occurs in non-clinical populations. Indeed, there appears to be a higher proportion in non-clinical samples than in eating-disorder samples (Conason, 2014). While it appears that grazing is a somewhat a normative behaviour, grazing has been linked to weight increase, and lower quality of life (Heriseanu et al. 2019).

Psychological researchers note though, that some people graze far more than others. Recent research has found grazing to be more common in women, in those with a higher body mass, and there have been some findings that suggest that certain personality traits like being more impulsive and being more sensitive to the rewarding properties of food may be linked to greater grazing behaviour (Bonder et al., 2018; Wilson et al., 2021). Impulsiveness is typically defined as acting rashly and without considering future consequences. Reward responsiveness can be conceptualized as having two separate facets: i) Reward Interest, which is defined as the tendency to notice and seek out rewarding situations or activities and ii) Reward Reactivity, which is defined as the tendency to respond positively to obtained rewards. While these factors (gender, body mass, impulsiveness, reward interest, and reward reactivity) have been associated with eating behaviour, previous studies have only looked the association with grazing independently of each other (e.g., have only looked at the association between being overweight, or impulsive, etc) but not in a single study. This is important as often impulsiveness and reward responsiveness are also correlated with each other (e.g., Dawe et al., 2004). By examining these personality traits, together with gender and body mass, in their association with grazing in a single study we can test the unique associations between each factor and the outcome variable, in addition to the overall association between the predictor variables and grazing.

The current study

To that end a researcher ran a study collecting data from a sample of adults in the community by asking them to complete an online survey. The survey consisted of asking participants their height and weight, their identified gender, and three survey questionnaires measuring 1) grazing (repetitive eating), 2) impulsiveness, and 3) the two facets of reward responsiveness: reward interest, and reward reactivity. Grazing behaviour was measured using the Repetitive Eating Questionnaire (Conceição, et al., 2014). Impulsiveness was measured using the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale - Brief; Sternberg, Sharp, Stanford, & Tharp, 2013) while reward interest and reward reactivity were measured using items from the Short Version of the Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory Personality Questionnaire (Vecchione & Corr, 2020).

In this assignment you will be tasked with testing the following research question:

What are the associations between gender, body mass index (BMI), impulsiveness, reward interest, and reward reactivity on self-reported grazing?

To do this you will work with a dataset to test this research question using procedures and analyses as taught in this course in order to answer a series of questions that that you would work through when running a research study.

Notes.

• You do not need to do any research in this area. The references to the questionnaires used have been added to the reading lists in the library for those so interested.
• The assignment does not require a literature review.
• The assignment does not require an abstract or reference list.
• You have a maximum word limit of 2000 words but you may not need this many words.
• You will need to use the skills developed in the tutorials (weeks 3 to 8) to run the analyses.
• Also consult with the online resources provided for conceptual understanding of the analyses.

The Assignment Dataset

The assignment dataset contains the data as entered from the survey administered by the study’s participants.

You will need to use the skills taught in the tutorial program to:

• Recode the relevant variables into a meaningful format to use in the subsequent analysis
• Compute the relevant scale scores to use in the subsequent analysis
• Answer the questions below

This assignment is a modified version of a subset of real survey data. The assignment data file is in SPSS format and is called 3003PSY Assignment Data 2021.sav. It is available on Learning@GU in the Assessment folder. The variables are explained below. The dataset concerns adult participants who took part in a study examining predictors of grazing behaviour.

The variables in the datafile are: (SPSS variable names shown in bold): Gender “What gender do you identify with ?” 1 = Female; 2 = Male; 3 = Other Height “Please enter your height (in cm)

Weight “Please enter your weight (in kgs)

req# Items from the Repetitive Eating Questionnaire (# = question number)

BARRATT# Items from the Brief Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (# = question number)

RSTPQ# Items from the Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory Personality Questionnaire Short Version (# = question number)

See copies of questionnaires at the end of this document

Use the information provided to compute the relevant scales and demographics

Note that some questionnaires have multiple scales. Make sure to use the correct scale.

Things you will need to calculate prior testing your assumptions and running your analyses:

• Calculate Body Mass Index. You will need to use this formula and your compute skills to create this index from participants’ reported height and weight. The formula for is: BMI = kg/m² where kg is a person's weight in kilograms and m² is their height in metres squared.

weight(kgs)/(height(metres)2)

Note this formula requires a conversion from height in cms to height in metres. Also ensure to square height first, then divide

• Create a dummy variable for gender

• Create a composite score for grazing from the Repetitive Eating Questionnaire (see the items at the end of this document)
• Create a composite score for Impulsiveness from the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale - Brief (see the items at the end of this document)
• Create a composite score for Reward Interest from the Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory Personality Scale - Short (see the items at the end of this document)
• Create a composite score for Reward Reactivity from the Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory Personality Scale - Short (see the items at the end of this document)
• Follow the processes from the online materials, synchronous lecture, and tutorials to answer the questions below

For this assignment, you are expected to select and run the appropriate analyses and procedures, and to report the outcomes of these analyses as required by each question. Some questions require you to present formal write-ups that are similar to parts of methods and results sections. Be sure to read the questions carefully. Your analyses should all be selected from those covered in 3003PSY in 2021.

There will be one set of data for the whole class. However, you must write up and submit independent assignments. The normal University procedures for plagiarism, including the use of checking software, apply to the present assessment item.

• The total marks for this Assignment are 80 and equal 40% of the course grade.
• Do not provide an abstract.
• You have a maximum word limit of 2000 words
• Use APA format (APA 7th) where appropriate, including tables
• You may use dot points except where otherwise indicated (e.g., when asked to write in sentence/paragraph format)
• Do not submit your syntax
• Maximum marks for each section are noted below
• Submit your final analysis output as an Appendix

RESEARCH QUESTION

What are the associations between gender, body mass index (BMI), impulsiveness, reward interest, and reward reactivity on self-reported grazing?ASSIGNMENT QUESTIONS AND ASSOCIATED MARKS

Answer the following questions:

In your assignment use the question (in bold) and question number as subheadings when answering each question (these subheadings are not part of the word count).