Date of Completion

2022

Document Type

Honors College Thesis

Department

Nutrition and Food Sciences

Thesis Type

Honors College

First Advisor

Dr. Lizzy Pope, PhD, RD

Keywords

Hangry, hunger, emotion, behavior, dietary restraint, personality

Abstract

The term “hangry, is an adjective used to describe negative mood state and emotional-behavioral changes associated with hunger. No study to date has discretely qualified or quantified hanger. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to assess differences in the perception of hanger based on how it is experienced and expressed in romantic partner pairs. This study also looked for predictors of hanger based on personality differences and level of dietary restraint in terms of cognitive restraint, uncontrolled eating, and emotional eating patterns. 61 romantic partners pairs (122 total participants) completed the survey. Participants and their partners each filled out an assessment on hanger, the Inclusion of Others in Self (IOS) task, the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire Revised (TFEQ-R18) and the Hunter-Wolff A/B Personality Questionnaire. Within partner pairs, hanger scores given to oneself were highly correlated with the hanger score received from one’s partner. Regression analysis indicated that uncontrolled eating patterns significantly predicted self-hanger score and emotional eating patterns significantly predicted partner-hanger scores. Cognitive restraint and personality differences were not significantly related to self- or partner- hanger score. Our findings point to a complex interplay between hanger and self-regulation of emotions and eating behavior that is still not well understood. Finally, hanger appears to be observed both intra and interpersonally, indicating that hanger could have the potential to impact relationships.

Comments

The full contents of this thesis are available in the Honors College office.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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