Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

There has long been an interest in food among psychologists across the full range of the discipline, from the physiology of hunger and the psychophysics of taste and smell to the development of food preferences and the social psychology of food-related behaviour and attitudes. In this new text, John L. Smith takes a much-needed broad view of the field, bringing together physiological research, psychodynamic theory, and sociological perspectives in a way that both celebrates their differences and explores their potential fusion.

The Psychology of Food and Eating provides more than a 'dry' decontextualised physiological explanation of food and eating. It moves on to enable students to see food in its wider context in terms of everyday life and real routines. It provides an overview of social scientific approaches to the study of food (biosocial, socioanthropological, structural, feminist/psychodynamic) and an appreciation of the various ways that social psychological perspectives can be applied to real-life contexts.

With its detailed (and almost confessional) account of the research process, students will gain an insider's perspective on how observational and idiographic techniques are deployed in practice in everyday settings. The book will prove of interest not only to students and researchers on health psychology, applied psychology and critical psychology courses, but also to all those looking for a really accessible introduction to contemporary alternatives to the more conventional research techniques used in this field.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• List of Tables and Figures (p. x)
• Preface (p. xi)
• Acknowledgements (p. xviii)
• 1 Introduction (p. 1)
• Babies and Mother's Milk (p. 2)
• Children and Food (p. 6)
• Attitudinal and Cognitive Basis in Choice of Dish and/or Menu (p. 10)
• Famine (p. 13)
• Poverty and Malnutrition (p. 17)
• Plan of the Book (p. 21)
• Part 1 Focus on Theory
• 2 Non-Biological Perspectives (p. 27)
• Psychoanalytic Theory and the Good Breast (Freud and Klein) (p. 28)
• Structuralism and the Culinary Triangle (Levi-Strauss) (p. 31)
• Food Codes and the Grammar of Eating (Douglas) (p. 34)
• The Semiology of Food and Cooking (Barthes) (p. 37)
• The Sociology of Contemporary Food Consumption (Warde) (p. 40)
• Food Consumption, Class, and Cultural Capital (Bourdieu) (p. 42)
• Conclusion (p. 46)
• 3 Hunger, Flavour, Digestion and Kitchen Chemistry (p. 48)
• Hunger (p. 49)
• Stomach distension (p. 49)
• Homeostatic mechanism in the blood (p. 50)
• Hypothalamus as centre for control (p. 51)
• Neuropeptide Y and obese gene product (p. 53)
• Satiety signals (p. 53)
• The Biochemistry of Flavour (p. 54)
• Taste (p. 54)
• Smell (p. 57)
• Digestion (p. 60)
• Kitchen Chemistry (p. 63)
• Case Study: A Simple Lunch at Home (p. 66)
• Concluding Discussion (p. 71)
• 4 Eating Disorders: The Feminist, Control and Biomedical Discourses (p. 74)
• Anorexia Nervosa (p. 75)
• The Feminist Discourse (p. 76)
• Post-structuralist, Lacanian discourse (p. 76)
• Conversations with anorexic women: Malson's analysis (p. 82)
• Orbach on female fatness (p. 84)
• The Discourse of Control (p. 89)
• The Biomedical Discourse (p. 98)
• Concluding Remarks (p. 101)
• Part 2 Post-Positivist Research Reports
• 5 Dinner Party (Agentic Participant Observation Case Study) (p. 107)
• A-priori Hierarchical Analysis of the Dinner Party Episode (p. 108)
• Task and critical path analysis (p. 109)
• Dramatis Personae (p. 110)
• Episode A Conception (p. 112)
• Episode B Advanced Preparation (p. 120)
• Episode C Penultimate Chores (p. 123)
• Episode D The Home Stretch (p. 127)
• Episode E Main Dinner (p. 132)
• Episode F End Game (p. 138)
• Planning and Scheduling Issues (p. 140)
• Conclusion (p. 145)
• 6 Eating Out in a Small Way (Idiographic Observation) (p. 147)
• EO1: Self-Service Lunch at a Vegetarian Restaurant in Central London (p. 149)
• EO2: Afternoon Snack in the Food Court of a Small Shopping Mall in Central London (p. 154)
• EO3: English Breakfast in a Central London Hotel (p. 160)
• EO4: Lunchtime Sandwich at a Riverside Pub in Sunderland (p. 163)
• EO5: Lunch at an In-Store Cafeteria in Sunderland City Centre (p. 166)
• Conclusion (p. 170)
• 7 Food Discourse (Magazines and Cook Books) (p. 173)
• Introduction (p. 173)
• Women's Magazines (p. 174)
• Elle (September 2000) (p. 174)
• Cosmopolitan (September 2000) (p. 180)
• Good Housekeeping (September 2000) (p. 181)
• Cook Books (p. 186)
• Concluding Comments (p. 192)
• 8 Conclusion (p. 194)
• Discourse Matrix (p. 195)
• Preliminary Introduction to Hermeneutics (p. 200)
• Food Texts and Hermeneutics (p. 202)
• Future Directions (p. 208)
• Appendix 1 Recipe for Potage au Potiron (Pumpkin Soup) (Grigson, 1980) (p. 214)
• Appendix 2 Recipe for Gorgonzola Cheese and Apple Strudel with Spiced Pickled Pears (D. Smith, 1995) (p. 214)
• Appendix 3 Recipes for Chocolate Chestnut Pave and Chantilly Cream (Willan, 1989) (p. 217)
• Appendix 4 Costings for Dinner Party (p. 219)
• Bibliography (p. 221)
• Name Index (p. 230)
• Subject Index (p. 234)

Author notes provided by Syndetics