Year
2024Credit points
10Campus offering
No unit offerings are currently available for this unitPrerequisites
PSYC100 Foundations of Psychology AND PSYC101 Applications of Psychology
Unit rationale, description and aim
Eating behaviours have considerable importance for many professional applications of psychology, including clinical psychology, health psychology, and counselling psychology. Eating disorders and unhealthy eating habits, for example, are becoming increasingly common, and food-related health issues and costs are increasing exponentially, with implications also for policy making.
This unit adopts a broad perspective and will introduce students to current theories and evidence at the intersection of psychology, neuroscience, and health science with other disciplines and expertise in eating bahaviours. The unit will draw on evidence from a range of behavioural and neuroscience methods that have significantly advanced our understanding of eating behaviours.
The aim is to provide an overview of our current understanding of how humans perceive food, think and make decisions about food, and the factors that may influence our choices. The unit is intended to provide a better understanding of eating choice processes in their normal and abnormal modalities.
Learning outcomes
To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.
Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.
Explore the graduate capabilities.
| Learning Outcome Number | Learning Outcome Description | Relevant Graduate Capabilities |
|---|---|---|
| LO1 | Describe the current understanding of human eating behaviour based on psychological and neuroscientific theories and evidence | GC1, GC3, GC7, GC8, GC12 |
| LO2 | Identify and describe basic methodological approaches and key empirical evidence in the domain of food perception and choice including the key factors influencing food choice in normal and abnormal eating behaviours | GC1, GC2, GC3, GC11, GC12 |
| LO3 | Identify key neural structures implicated in the perception and choice of food | GC1, GC3, GC8, GC12 |
| LO4 | Critically analyse empirical evidence in the domain of eating behaviour | GC1, GC3, GC7, GC11, GC12 |
Content
Topics will include:
- The physiology of food intake regulation
- Food and reward
- Taste and disgust
- Food perception and choice
- Cognitive, emotional, and cultural influences on food intake
- Environmental and social determinants of eating
- The psychobiology of food intake control: dieting and weight control
- Obesity, and disordered eating behaviours
- Interventions to improve food choice and eating habits
- Ethics associated with eating behaviour and associated health stigmatism
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
This unit has the equivalent of three contact hours per week over twelve weeks which involves lectures and tutorials. During the lectures, evidence and models describing eating behaviour will be presented and described. The lectures will also provide the space for the discussion of the issues that arise and are associated to the multidisciplinary nature of the topic. In tutorials students will be engaged in individual and group activities as well as reflective/critical thinking activities ensuring active participation in the critical analyses of relevant topics. Students will be expected to take responsibility for their learning and to actively participate to class discussion and activities on a regular basis. In addition to the teaching provided by staff, this format will also stimulate peer-led discussions and learning. This range of strategies and the guided discussions/activities will provide students with appropriate access to required knowledge and understanding of unit content, and opportunities for development of competency.
Assessment strategy and rationale
In order to best support students to demonstrate unit learning outcomes and develop graduate attributes, standards-based assessment is implemented, consistent with University assessment requirements.
A range of assessment strategies are used.
(1) Diary study-case report. This task will allow students to become more accustomed to thinking about the levels of influence on food choice and eating behaviour that are examined in the unit.
(2) Oral presentation. This task will allow students to demonstrate their oral communication skills in the process of demonstrating knowledge and understanding of empirical research.
(3) Final examination. Final exam will provide students with an opportunity to demonstrate their understanding and consolidation of basic knowledge of content covered in the unit.
Overview of assessments
| Brief Description of Kind and Purpose of Assessment Tasks | Weighting | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|
Assessment Task 1 Study-case Report Students will be required to keep a one-week food journal and report their analyses and reflections on the diary data based on guided questions. This task will assess student's knowledge, understanding, critical thinking and analysis skills, and written communication skills. | 25% | LO2, LO4 |
Assessment Task 2 Oral Presentation In tutorials, students will present a research article from a provided list making a critical analysis of the research. This will assess students' ability to identify and describe empirical evidence and your understanding of empirical research in the domain of eating behaviour. | 25% | LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4 |
Assessment Task 3 End-of-semester Exam The exam will comprise multiple-choice and short-answer questions and will assess knowledge and understanding of unit content. | 50% | LO1, LO3, LO4 |
Representative texts and references
Avena, N. (2015). Hedonic Eating: How the Pleasure of Food Affects Our Brains and Behavior. Oxford University Press.
Best, M., Barsalou, L. W., & Papies, E. K. (2018). Studying Human Eating Behaviour in the Laboratory: Theoretical Considerations and Practical Suggestions. Appetite, 130, 339-343.
Carter, A., Hendrikse, J., Lee, N., Yücel, M., Verdejo-Garcia, A., Andrews, Z., & Hall, W. (2016). The neurobiology of “food addiction” and its implications for obesity treatment and policy. Annual review of nutrition, 36, 105-128.
Foroni, F., & Rumiati, R. I. (2017). Food perception and categorization: From food/no-food to different types of food. In Handbook of Categorization in Cognitive Science (Second Edition).
Levay, A. V., Chapman, G. E., Seed, B., & Wittman, H. (2018). It’s just the right thing to do: Conceptualizing a theory of change for a school food and beverage sales environment intervention and implications for implementation evaluation. Evaluation and program planning, 70, 73-82.
Logue, A. W. (2014). The psychology of eating and drinking. Routledge.
Robinson, E., Bevelander, K. E., Field, M., & Jones, A. (2018). Methodological and reporting quality in laboratory studies of human eating behavior. Appetite, 125, 486-491.
Spence, C. (2015). On the psychological impact of food colour. Flavour, 4:21.