Differentiating bingeing/purging and restrictive eating disorder subtypes: The roles of temperament, effortful control, and cognitive control

Impulsivity, defined as a predisposition toward uncontrolled behavior, is prominent to multiple theories of eating disordered (ED) behavior. The underlying basis of impulsivity, though, could be either motivational in nature or could reflect more basic deficits in effortful or cognitive control. Further, the motivational substrates of impulsive behavior could reflect high levels of behavioral activation (BAS), low levels of behavioral inhibition (BIS), or both. In the present study, forty ED patients were administered scales assessing BIS and BAS, effortful control, and cognitive control was also measured by a color-word Stroop task. Bingeing/purging ED patients, relative to restrictive ED patients, exhibited lower levels of BIS, effortful control, and cognitive control. BAS scores did not discriminate among ED groups. Implications focus on understanding the processing basis of bingeing/purging symptoms and the importance of doing so in informing psychological interventions for ED.