Thesis

Chapter 6 170 participants recommended the inclusion of examples and visual aids, such as pictures, to enhance comprehension and engagement. The target group is fully capable of engaging in self-management exercises online, and, in addition, individuals with emotional eating often prefer this approach, partially due to feelings of shame [75-77]. Improved presentation and attractiveness of the exercises, along with providing sufficient and comprehensive instructions on their execution and potential experiences during the process, would have influenced their effectiveness on positive affect (PA), negative affect (NA), and emotion dysregulation. Supplementing the body scan exercise It may be the case that the body scan exercise is less appreciated since the current study did not consider the context of experiencing hunger or food cravings, in contrast to Dol et al. [36]. Participants should practice with the assigned emotion regulation exercises when not experiencing food cravings or hunger. However, it may be said that it can be difficult to recognize the difference between hunger and emotionally evoked bodily sensations. Murray and Vickers [78] describe various physical (e.g., empty/hollow feeling) and mental experiences (e.g., lack of concentration on task) of typical and extreme hunger alone. Hunger is controlled by gastrointestinal mechanisms. Hunger is the presence of stomach growls, stomach hunger pains, emptiness, focus on eating, and loss of energy [78], whereas emotionally evoked sensations are related to sudden cravings, physical or mental exhaustion, unaddressed stress, and the desire to relieve it. We believe that the existing body scan exercise gains added value when extended with knowledge about physical and emotional hunger. Effects of exercises To improve the tailoring of future interventions for individuals with emotional eating, this study explored the effect of three online exercises, tailored to three specific emotion regulation difficulties, on affect (positive and negative) and overall emotion dysregulation within a sample of individuals with emotional eating. Based on their most prominent emotion regulation difficulty, participants received either the body scan, opposite action, or positive reframing exercise. Knowledge and insights were gathered on the effects of the three tailored exercises on the DERS and PANAS scores, but the hypothesized effects were too small to be categorized as significant. The small effects were caused by the small number of participants in T1 and

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