Addictions, Cultural Narrative, and Type-A Personalities

(support with recent apa resources)
-What extent does the cultural narrative play in the initiation and maintenance of disordered eating and eating disorders?
-How are type-A personalities described?
-What are the differences between type-A personalities and workaholism?
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(1) What extent does the cultural narrative play in the initiation and maintenance of disordered eating and eating disorders?

Eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia are generally attributed to factors associated with culture, society and genetics. These disorders are characterized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Illness (DSM-IV-TR [APA], 2000), “As severe disturbances in eating behavior that are characterized by the individual being preoccupied with body size and weight, which leads to unhealthy choices in efforts to control weight” (p. 583). The tendency for individuals to develop eating disorders has a lot to do with cultural narratives. For example, body dissatisfaction is internalized based on views in specific cultures as to what constitutes and ideal body image. A negative perception of a heavy frame as opposed to a thin body frame contributes to the desire of anorexics and bulimics to model their body size and shape based on the “ideal” image of thinness.

In addition, family and social patterns soon become maladaptive for the family in a new country, because the family?s cultural values, beliefs and practices in a new country are abandoned. For instance, the desire to be thin is influenced by the media culture, and can result in unhealthy eating habits and eating disorders (Polivy & Herman, 1987). They assert that eating disorders often originate among females with normal diets; however, under social and …