Restraint, disinhibition, hunger and negative affect eating

The Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (Stunkard & Messick, 1985) contains factors measuring dietary restraint, disinhibition, and hunger. In this study, the ability of these factors to predict eating responses to negative affect was tested. The Velten mood induction procedure was used to produce neutral or depressed moods in normal weight college students. Subjects were encouraged to sample candy which was made available during the mood induction procedure. The results indicated that the Hunger factor was the only significant predictor of negative affect eating. Depressed, high-hunger subjects were more likely to eat than subjects in other conditions and, in on of two analyses of amount of candy consumed, were found to eat the most candy as well. The possibility that these results could be explained by an overlap between the Hunger factor and the construct of external responsiveness was considered. Implications of the overall findings for theories of emotional eating were briefly discussed.