Hunger

Type of psychology: Motivation
Field of study: Physical motives
The psychological bases of hunger play an important role in the external and internal
mediating forces that can affect and modify the physiological aspects of hunger.

Key concepts

• appetite
• bingeing
• deprivation
• eating disorders
• external cues
• homeostasis
• hypothalamus
• primary motives
• satiety
• set point

Primary motives are generated by innate biological needs that must be met
for survival. These motives include hunger, thirst, and sleep. Hunger has
been studied extensively, yet there is still uncertainty as to exactly how this
drive works. A large body of research about the physiological analysis of hunger
has led to the identification of important differences between physical
hunger and psychological hunger.

Physical hunger theories assume that the body’s physiological mechanisms
and systems produce hunger as a need and that when this need is satisfied,
the hunger drive is, for the time being, reduced. Psychologists have developed
models and theories of hunger by analyzing its boundaries and
restraint or regulation. The early findings on hunger regulation mechanisms
emphasized the biological state of the individual and the control of an
individual over the hunger drive. If a person experiences hunger, consumption
of food will continue until it is terminated by internal cues. This is referred
to as regulation.

The individual learns to avoid hunger by reacting to the internal cues of
satiety or fullness. The satiety boundary is characterized by feelings of fullness
ranging from satisfaction to uncomfortable bloating. The normal eater
learns to avoid transgression far or often into this latter zone. Beyond the reaction
to internal cues is a zone of indifference, in which the body is not subject
to biological cues. Instead, hunger is influenced by social, cognitive, and
psychological cues. These cues may be external or internalized but do not
rely on satiety cues for restraint.

Eating past the point of satiety is referred to as counterregulation or,
more commonly, as binge eating or compulsive eating. Because the inhibitors
of hunger restraint are not physiological in this zone, the restraint and dietary boundaries are cognitively determined. The physical hunger mechanisms
may send signals, but quite ordinary ideas such as “being hungry” and
“not being hungry” must be interpreted or received by the individual. The
person must learn to distinguish between bodily sensations that indicate the
need for food and the feelings that accompany this need, such as anxiety,
boredom, loneliness, or depression.

Thus, there are both internal cues and external cues that define hunger
and lead an individual to know when to eat and how much to eat. External
cues as a motive for eating have been studied extensively, particularly in research
on obesity and eating disorders such as binge behavior and compulsive
overeating. External cues include enticing smells, locations such as restaurants
or other kinds of social settings, and the social environment—what
other people are doing. When external cues prevail, a person does not have
to be hungry in order to feel hungry. 409