In this study a comparison was made between the amounts eaten by restrained and unrestrained eaters following an anxiety-induction procedure. Subjects' level of perceived hunger was assessed and the interactive effects on eating of anxiety and perceived hunger were examined. Results revealed a significant three-way interaction. Unrestrained subjects did not alter their eating in response to either anxiety or hunger. When relaxed, restrained subjects ate more when hungry than when not hungry. However, in restrained subjects, anxiety appeared to counteract the disinhibiting effect of hunger, so that anxious hungry subjects ate less than relaxed hungry subjects and the same amount as relaxed subjects who were not hungry.0 1993 by /ohn Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Herman and Polivy (1984) have outlined a "boundary model" for the regulation of eating, proposed as a framework within which disinhibition of eating might be understood. The model suggests that both physiological and cognitive factors serve to maintain eating within certain boundaries, the upper and lower of which are the aversive physiological states of satiety and hunger, respectively. Eating is regulated so as to maintain the subject in the "zone of biological indifference" between these two boundaries. However, it is proposed that the eating of dietary restrainers differs from that of unrestrained eaters in certain respects. For dietary restrainers the physiological boundaries are wider apart and the zone of biological indifference is therefore larger. This implies that, compared with unrestrained eaters, dietary restrainers can tolerate greater food deprivation without experiencing hunger and can consume larger amounts before experiencing satiety. In addition, dietary restrainers have a third boundary-termed the diet boundary-which is set above the hunger boundary but well below the satiety level. This boundary is entirely cognitive in nature and consists of subjects' rules about what types and amounts of food may be consumed. Dietary restrainers attempt to maintain their eating below this cognitively imposed diet boundary. Disinhibition oc-