Psychology

Thesis
The context of this paper is eating disorders and the steps that can be used in hypothesis testing of some of the myths given about the causes of these disorders.

 Eating disorders are abnormal eating habits that involve individuals taking too much or too little food and in the process affecting the normal functioning of the body. They mostly affect girls but they can also affect boys. It is estimated in the United States that 1 or 2 in every 100 kids are likely to struggle with an eating disorder. In the US, it is estimated that about 5-10 million women are affected and 1 million men. (Mitchell  Peterson, 2005).

According to Lemberg  Cohn (1999), causes of eating disorders are not clearly known although there are theories that try to explain them. Risk factors include family influences, society, sports, gender, media, dieting, age, work and emotional disorders. A person whose parents have had a history of some of these disorders is likely to suffer from them also. This could be as a result of genetic factors. (Pearson  Rivers, 2006). Psychological and emotional characteristics have also been known to contribute in the development of these disorders. Individuals with perfectionism, difficulties in anger management, spontaneous behavior and low self esteem are more likely to develop the disorders. Environmental factors can also contribute where by western cultures nurture and strengthen a desire for slenderness and also media. Peer group influence may also force some girls to try to be slender by reducing weight as a result they develop this disorders (Menassa, 2004).

There are various eating disorders which include Binge eating disorder, Anorexia, and Bulimia. People suffering from anorexia have fear for weight gain that is extreme. Because of this reason, they are unable to maintain their normal body weight.  They always try to limit their food intake or result to be binge eating where they eat and try to get rid of excess calorie by inducing vomiting (Treasure, Schmidt  Furth, 2003).

Bulimia and anorexia resemble each other. Victims do not have control of their eating habits where by they are unable to stop eating until they are completely full and cant be able to eat anymore. They then purge through vomiting which can be induced by too much exercise and use of laxatives (Fairburn  Brownell, 2002). Binge eating disorder is comparable to anorexia and bulimia but its victims binge regularly but do not try to compensate.

According to Murphy  Myors (1998), to diagnose the cause of an eating disorder, all hypotheses must be put into consideration. For instance to test the common myth that eating disorders are all brought about by food, the following is done.

We identify the problem which in this case is eating disorders. Then we continue to the first step in hypothesis testing which is coming up with the hypothesis. The null hypothesis (H0) will be eating disorders are all brought about by food while our alternative hypothesis (H1) will be eating disorders have many different causes which cannot be overlooked. The second step will be to decide the type of test and the significant level required which in this case will be a two tailed test where we want to know if eating disorders are only caused by food (you take the number of people who have the problem as a result of food (X) or there are other factors (you also take the number of people affected as a result of other factors other than food (y). You can choose a significant level which can be either a 95 confidence level or 99 confidence level. The third stage involves getting the standard error which in this case is (Y-X) divided by the square root of the total number of people affected with these disorders, (XY) and the result (S) is recorded. The fourth stage is calculation of the critical region.

Since this test is a two-tailed test, a symmetrical critical region will be used. It will have a lower limit of (X-1.96  S) and an upper limit of (X1.96S). The last stage is comparison of X which is claimed to be the true mean with the critical region. If it falls inside the critical region , the (H0) is accepted and (H1) is rejected. If it falls within the region, accept (H1) and reject (H0).