Psychological Perspectives on Food and Eating
- LAST REVIEWED: 21 February 2023
- LAST MODIFIED: 21 February 2023
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199828340-0308
- LAST REVIEWED: 21 February 2023
- LAST MODIFIED: 21 February 2023
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199828340-0308
Introduction
Other than breathing, eating occupies a greater percentage of our time than any other activity. As omnivores, humans need to not only consume the correct amount of food, but a combination of foods containing all essential nutrients in proper proportion. At the same time, the food consumed must be lacking in poisons and other harmful substances. For these reasons, a good deal of human behavior is devoted to finding and consuming an appropriate diet. Consequently, there has been an enormous amount of research conducted concerning humans and eating. When that research has involved the behaviors involved in how we eat and what is eaten, such research falls within the discipline of psychology. Understanding how and why we eat as we do is an interdisciplinary endeavor, involving many research specialties within the overall discipline of psychology, in addition to research conducted as part of other disciplines. The present bibliography provides an overview and a sampling of the psychological research on food and eating. This bibliography includes sections concerned with the basic processes involved in how much is eaten (hunger and satiety), as well as with the basic processes involved in choosing what to eat (taste, smell, and food preferences and aversions). Two additional sections consider some of the formal models regarding how foods are chosen, and how food can affect behavior. Two further sections concern eating disorders—situations in which, even though appropriate food is available, humans consume food in ways that are harmful to their health. A final section concerns psychological perspectives on cuisine and influences on our eating by the food industry.
Overview Sources
The psychology of eating is a huge field and so there are few sources of information that directly concern the field as a whole. However, there are a few sources to which someone may turn to obtain general information. Among such sources are the books The Psychology of Eating and Drinking (4th ed.) (Logue 2015) and Handbook of Eating and Drinking (Meiselman 2020), as well as the journal Appetite, and the professional organization Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior (SSIB).
The international, interdisciplinary journal Appetite includes articles on all types of eating and drinking research, including all sorts of topics and methodologies. There are articles concerning humans’ as well as other animals’ consumption, normal as well as disordered eating and drinking, and findings from laboratory as well as real-world studies.
Logue, A. W. 2015. The psychology of eating and drinking. 4th ed. New York: Routledge.
This book explores the research behind how and why we eat and drink what we do. This is the only book to provide an educated reader with a broad, scientific understanding of weight loss, picky eating, food cravings, and many other topics within the field of the psychology of eating.
Meiselman, H. L., ed. 2020. Handbook of eating and drinking: Interdisciplinary perspectives. Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature.
This book consists of a series of edited chapters on many of the basic topics concerning how and why eating and drinking occur.
Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior SSIB.
SSIB is a professional organization which facilitates research on consumption of food and drink and the mechanisms responsible for those behaviors. SSIB was founded in 1987, and is uniquely dedicated to research on all aspects of eating behavior.
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Article
- Abnormal Psychology
- Academic Assessment
- Acculturation and Health
- Action Regulation Theory
- Action Research
- Addictive Behavior
- Adolescence
- Adoption, Social, Psychological, and Evolutionary Perspect...
- Adulthood
- Advanced Theory of Mind
- Affective Forecasting
- Affirmative Action
- Ageism
- Ageism at Work
- Aggression
- Allport, Gordon
- Alzheimer’s Disease
- Ambulatory Assessment in Behavioral Science
- Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA)
- Anger
- Animal Behavior
- Animal Learning
- Anxiety Disorders
- Art and Aesthetics, Psychology of
- Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Psychology
- Assessment and Clinical Applications of Individual Differe...
- Attachment in Social and Emotional Development across the ...
- Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in Adults
- Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in Childre...
- Attitudes
- Attitudinal Ambivalence
- Attraction in Close Relationships
- Attribution Theory
- Authoritarian Personality
- Autism
- Bayesian Statistical Methods in Psychology
- Behavior Therapy, Rational Emotive
- Behavioral Economics
- Behavioral Genetics
- Belief Perseverance
- Bereavement and Grief
- Biological Psychology
- Birth Order
- Body Image in Men and Women
- Burnout
- Bystander Effect
- Categorical Data Analysis in Psychology
- Childhood and Adolescence, Peer Victimization and Bullying...
- Clark, Mamie Phipps
- Clinical Neuropsychology
- Clinical Psychology
- Cognitive Consistency Theories
- Cognitive Dissonance Theory
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Communication, Nonverbal Cues and
- Comparative Psychology
- Competence to Stand Trial: Restoration Services
- Competency to Stand Trial
- Computational Psychology
- Conflict Management in the Workplace
- Conformity, Compliance, and Obedience
- Consciousness
- Coping Processes
- Correspondence Analysis in Psychology
- Counseling Psychology
- Courage
- Creativity
- Creativity at Work
- Critical Thinking
- Cross-Cultural Psychology
- Cultural Psychology
- Daily Life, Research Methods for Studying
- Data Science Methods for Psychology
- Data Sharing in Psychology
- Death and Dying
- Deceiving and Detecting Deceit
- Defensive Processes
- DEI in Organizations
- Depression
- Depressive Disorders
- Development, Prenatal
- Developmental Psychology (Cognitive)
- Developmental Psychology (Social)
- Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM...
- Discrimination
- Disgust
- Dissociative Disorders
- Drugs and Behavior
- Eating Disorders
- Ecological Psychology
- Ecopsychology
- Educational Settings, Assessment of Thinking in
- Effect Size
- Embodiment and Embodied Cognition
- Emerging Adulthood
- Emotion
- Emotional Intelligence
- Empathy and Altruism
- Employee Stress and Well-Being
- Environmental Neuroscience and Environmental Psychology
- Ethics in Psychological Practice
- Event Perception
- Evolutionary Psychology
- Expansive Posture
- Experimental Existential Psychology
- Exploratory Data Analysis
- Eyewitness Testimony
- Eysenck, Hans
- Factor Analysis
- Festinger, Leon
- Five-Factor Model of Personality
- Flynn Effect, The
- Forensic Psychology
- Forgiveness
- Friendships, Children's
- Fundamental Attribution Error/Correspondence Bias
- Gambler's Fallacy
- Game Theory and Psychology
- Geropsychology, Clinical
- Global Mental Health
- Habit Formation and Behavior Change
- Happiness
- Health Psychology
- Health Psychology Research and Practice, Measurement in
- Heider, Fritz
- Heuristics and Biases
- History of Psychology
- Human Factors
- Humanistic Psychology
- Humor
- Hypnosis
- Implicit Association Test (IAT)
- Industrial and Organizational Psychology
- Inferential Statistics in Psychology
- Insanity Defense, The
- Intelligence
- Intelligence, Crystallized and Fluid
- Intercultural Psychology
- Intergroup Conflict
- International Classification of Diseases and Related Healt...
- International Psychology
- Interviewing in Forensic Settings
- Intimate Partner Violence, Psychological Perspectives on
- Introversion–Extraversion
- Item Response Theory
- Kurtosis
- Language
- Laughter
- Law, Psychology and
- Lazarus, Richard
- Leadership
- Learned Helplessness
- Learning Theory
- Learning versus Performance
- LGBTQ+ Romantic Relationships
- Lie Detection in a Forensic Context
- Life-Span Development
- Lineups
- Locus of Control
- Loneliness and Health
- Mathematical Psychology
- Meaning in Life
- Mechanisms and Processes of Peer Contagion
- Media Violence, Psychological Perspectives on
- Mediation Analysis
- Meditation
- Memories, Autobiographical
- Memories, Flashbulb
- Memories, Repressed and Recovered
- Memory, False
- Memory, Human
- Memory, Implicit versus Explicit
- Memory in Educational Settings
- Memory, Semantic
- Meta-Analysis
- Metacognition
- Metamemory
- Metaphor, Psychological Perspectives on
- Microaggressions
- Military Psychology
- Mindfulness
- Mindfulness and Education
- Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
- Money, Psychology of
- Moral Conviction
- Moral Development
- Moral Psychology
- Moral Reasoning
- Motivation
- Music
- Narcissism
- Narrative
- Nature versus Nurture Debate in Psychology
- Neuroscience of Associative Learning
- Nonergodicity in Psychology and Neuroscience
- Nonparametric Statistical Analysis in Psychology
- Observational (Non-Randomized) Studies
- Obsessive-Complusive Disorder (OCD)
- Occupational Health Psychology
- Older Workers
- Olfaction, Human
- Operant Conditioning
- Optimism and Pessimism
- Organizational Justice
- Parenting Stress
- Parenting Styles
- Parents' Beliefs about Children
- Path Models
- Peace Psychology
- Perception
- Perception, Person
- Performance Appraisal
- Personality and Health
- Personality Disorders
- Personality Psychology
- Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapies: From Car...
- Phenomenological Psychology
- Placebo Effects in Psychology
- Play Behavior
- Positive Psychological Capital (PsyCap)
- Positive Psychology
- Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- Prejudice and Stereotyping
- Pretrial Publicity
- Prisoner's Dilemma
- Problem Solving and Decision Making
- Procrastination
- Prosocial Behavior
- Prosocial Spending and Well-Being
- Protocol Analysis
- Psycholinguistics
- Psychological Literacy
- Psychological Perspectives on Food and Eating
- Psychology, Political
- Psychoneuroimmunology
- Psychophysics, Visual
- Psychotherapy
- Psychotic Disorders
- Publication Bias in Psychology
- Race
- Reasoning, Counterfactual
- Rehabilitation Psychology
- Relationships
- Reliability–Contemporary Psychometric Conceptions
- Religion, Psychology and
- Remote Work
- Replication Initiatives in Psychology
- Research Methods
- Resilience
- Risk Taking
- Role of the Expert Witness in Forensic Psychology, The
- Rumination
- Sample Size Planning for Statistical Power and Accurate Es...
- Savoring
- Schizophrenic Disorders
- School Psychology
- School Psychology, Counseling Services in
- Self, Gender and
- Self, Psychology of the
- Self-Construal
- Self-Control
- Self-Deception
- Self-Determination Theory
- Self-Efficacy
- Self-Esteem
- Self-Monitoring
- Self-Regulation in Educational Settings
- Self-Report Tests, Measures, and Inventories in Clinical P...
- Sensation Seeking
- Sex and Gender
- Sexual Minority Parenting
- Sexual Orientation
- Signal Detection Theory and its Applications
- Simpson's Paradox in Psychology
- Single People
- Single-Case Experimental Designs
- Situational Strength
- Skinner, B.F.
- Sleep and Dreaming
- Small Groups
- Social Class and Social Status
- Social Cognition
- Social Neuroscience
- Social Support
- Social Touch and Massage Therapy Research
- Somatoform Disorders
- Spatial Attention
- Sports Psychology
- Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE): Icon and Controversy
- Stereotype Threat
- Stereotypes
- Stress and Coping, Psychology of
- Student Success in College
- Subjective Wellbeing Homeostasis
- Suicide
- Taste, Psychological Perspectives on
- Teaching of Psychology
- Terror Management Theory
- Testing and Assessment
- The Concept of Validity in Psychological Assessment
- The Neuroscience of Emotion Regulation
- The Reasoned Action Approach and the Theories of Reasoned ...
- The Weapon Focus Effect in Eyewitness Memory
- Theory of Mind
- Therapy, Cognitive-Behavioral
- Thinking Skills in Educational Settings
- Time Perception
- Trait Perspective
- Trauma Psychology
- Twin Studies
- Type A Behavior Pattern (Coronary Prone Personality)
- Unconscious Processes
- Video Games and Violent Content
- Virtues and Character Strengths
- Wisdom
- Women and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM...
- Women, Psychology of
- Work Well-Being
- Workforce Training Evaluation
- Wundt, Wilhelm