Emotionally Motivated Behavior and Personality among Women with Bulimia Nervosa

LISA BROWNSTONE: Emotionally Motivated Behavior and Personality Among Women with Bulimia Nervosa (Under the direction of Anna Bardone-Cone) The current study examines ways in which personality may account for frequency and variability of emotionally motivated behaviors among individuals with subthreshold and threshold bulimia nervosa (BN). Personality subtyping studies have consistently recognized categories of over-restricted and dysregulated subtypes of BN. Rather than conceptualizing personality categorically, the current study aims to see how the continuous personality variables of inhibitedness, impulsivity, and emotion dysregulation may interact to identify frequency and variability of emotionally motivated behaviors in a sample of females with bulimic-type eating disorders. All of the behaviors explored in this study (bulimic and non-bulimic comorbid behaviors) are generally considered maladaptive and related to affect regulation. The sample included 204 females with threshold and subthreshold BN who provided self-report data via questionnaires. Results indicated that there was an interaction between emotion dysregulation and inhibitedness in accounting for frequencies of both hard exercise and laxative use. On its own, emotion dysregulation accounted for a significant amount of variance in two of the dependent variables of interest (frequency of subjective binge eating and variability of non-BN behaviors). Impulsivity was also found to account for a significant amount of variance in two of the dependent variables of interest (frequency of laxative use and variability of non-BN behaviors). Future research should continue to iii examine correlates and predictors of both frequency and variability of bulimic and non-bulimic emotionally motivated behaviors.