16063066 Mental Health and Wellbeing - Describe a disorder and critically consider both the biological and cognitive eyxplanations of its causes. This essay will explore a disorder called Anorexia Nervosa. This disorder is an eating disorder and throughout the essay anorexia nervosa will become more clear for someone who may not know a lot about this disorder, for example, how or why a person may develop this disorder. According to NHS, (2017) an eating disorder is someone who has 'physical or psychological harmful eating habits'. Eating disorders are associated with low self-esteem, depression, substance abuse and suicidal ideation. Beat, (2017) suggests that 50% of adolescent females and 20% of adolescent males report dieting to control …show more content…
There has been evidence suggesting anorexia nervosa is the result of inherited predisposition. W. Eqsench (2002) This evidence suggests that eating disorders can be inherited from family members. Resent research suggests that genetics contribute 56% of the risk of developing this disorder. People who have siblings or parents with anorexia nervosa are twelve times more likely to develop anorexia compared to people who do not have a family history of anorexia. A recent study on twins has shown a higher rate of eating disorders when twins are identical compared to fraternal twins. This research focused on abnormalities in the structure of the hypothalamus, this is a structure in the brain that is responsible for regulating eating habits and …show more content…
Ethically there are issues with the cognitive explanation of Anorexia Nervosa as the cause of psychological issues in bad thought processes, this outcome can tend to blame the sufferer of the disorder and say that it is caused as a result of trauma, but the cognitive explanation states that the problem is due to their perceptions of their own body and the problems in their eating habits. The cognitive explanation states that people with anorexia see themselves as overweight when they are actually underweight and un healthy. But their mind tells them different. This is where the cognitive approach applies to this disorder. Women tend to be more dissatisfied with their bodies then men are but not every person who thinks this way will develop the disorder Anorexia Nervosa. This may be where the biological approach comes in to act as causes of this disorder could be through genes and passed down through families. Growing up as a child watching somebody have Anorexia Nervosa may make the child watching that behaviour grow up thinking that is the norm and developing the same