Date of Award

4-28-2023

Document Type

Thesis

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Laura Knouse

Abstract

Food related intrusive thoughts (FRITs), a type of intrusive thoughts, might be associated with greater frequency of food intake, greater anxiety and distress, and negative affect in general. However, little is known about the experience of FRITs in the moment. I hypothesized that (1) momentary food related intrusive thoughts or FRITs would be positively related to momentary negative affect and (2) that time since eating will moderate this relationship such that people with more time since eating will show a stronger positive relationship between FRITs and negative affect. These relationships were not found to be significant; however, there was a trend toward people who reported more FRITs in general also reporting more negative affect (although not necessarily at the same moment). Additionally, exploratory analyses showed that reporting more FRITs in general was also significantly related to positive affect. Ecological Momentary Assessment was helpful in detecting FRITs in college students in the moment as 19% of our EMA surveys reported FRITs. It is important to consider that FRITs might occur without significant negative or positive affect in the moment level which might make their detection more difficult.

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2023-Ain-form.pdf (273 kB)
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