Abstract

This study investigated factors that affect restrained eaters· eating behaviors. Especially, which factors facilitate or prohibit the inhibition of eating behaviors, and whether the private self-focused attention influences on eating behaviors to the restrained eaters were examined. The experimental design was a 2 (restraint level: restraint/non-restraint)×2(preloading: 0cc/235cc)×3(private self-focused attention: weight or body shape related self-focused/personality related self-focused/private self unrelated attention) completely randomized factorial design. Participants were 180 college females, 15 females in each condition. The main findings of this study are as follows. First, the restraint level by the preloading two-way interaction effect was significant. In the simple main effect analysis, the restrained eaters ate more ice cream in the preloading condition than in the non-preloading condition. But non-restrained eaters ate less ice cream in the preloading condition than in the non-preloading condition. Second, the restraint level by the preloading by the private self-focused attention three-way interaction was significant. The restrained eaters in the weight-or body shape related private self-focused attention condition ate ice cream almost equally both in the preloading condition and in the non-preloading condition. The non-restrained eaters in the weight-or body shape related private self-focused attention condition ate ice cream nearly identically both in the preloading condition and in the non-preloading condition. These results suggest that the weight or body shape private self-focused attention play an important role in regulating eating behaviors. The significance, Implications, and limitations of this study were discussed.