Emotional stability/instability and ingestive disorders in males.

• Published: 2012
• Subjects: Eating disorders - South Africa; White men - South Africa - Psychology; Emotions
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/5680

M.A. === The aim of this study was to investigate possible differences in the six facets of the Neuroticism subscale of the NEO Personality Inventory Revised (measuring Emotional Stability / Instability) in relation to two eating disorder inventories, namely the EDI (Eating Disorder Inventory) and the EI (Eating Inventory) in males. The six facets of the Neuroticism scale are Anxiety, Angry Hostility, Depression, Impulsiveness, Self-Consciousness and Vulnerability. Based on the literature review, it was hypothesised that males with differential Neuroticism scores would show different scores on the eating disorder inventories. The sample consisted of 98 white, male, English speaking university students between the ages of 18 and 28, drawn from two tertiary education institutes in South Africa. The males were divided into high, medium and low groups for each facet of the Neuroticism scale according to the norm tables provided in the NEO PI-R manual. The NEO PI-R, the EDI and the EI were administered to all subjects. The results indicated that there are statistically significant differences between males with high, medium and low scores on the Anxiety, Depression, Self-Consciousness and Vulnerability facets of the Neuroticism subscales of the NEO PI-R in terms of the 11 subscales of the EDI taken together. There were also statistically significant differences between the males with high, medium and low scores on the Depression and Impulsiveness facets of the Neuroticism subscale of the NEO PI-R in terms of the 3 subscales of the EI taken together. It can be deduced that certain temperament traits may be related to eating disordered symptomatology and cognition. The above hypothesis was thus supported. These findings are also supported by findings from previous research which has found that emotional instability is evident in eating disordered individuals, even from childhood, and studies that have found that eating disordered individuals have tendencies towards neurotic personalities.