Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

A Corpus Assisted Analysis of Eating Disorders

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https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/bv73c620t

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  • The number of deaths by suicide each year in the United States is rising. Men, women, and people of all ages die by suicide at high rates. Someone diagnosed with anorexia or bulimia is at significantly greater risk of completing or attempting suicide, making clear the importance of understanding how eating disorder dynamics play a role in suicide even more necessary. Through understanding characteristics of eating disorders and suicidal behavior, professionals will be equipped to address the needs and risk factors of suicide in someone with an eating disorder. These studies applied a corpus linguistic tool to examine memoirs of people self-identifying as having been diagnosed with either anorexia or bulimia. Linguistic analysis studies grammar, structure, language, and context to understand cognition, concepts and sentiment found in text. Memoirs are a powerful source of personal experiences, and memories, with an emphasis on relationships and meaning held by the author. Memoirs written by people diagnosed with an eating disorder are a resource that can be used to better understand the risk of self-harm and suicide. Word usage rates were reported for each corpus. The usage rate of custom dictionaries, words related to the variables of the Interpersonal-Psychological Theory of Suicide, was also reported for each corpus. A log likelihood statistic was used to determine word usage rates in the memoir corpus compared to known norm rates. Besides p values, effect sizes (i.e., Bayesian Information Criterion) were reported for all inferential analyses. The word usage rates reported reflected important characteristics or word use in people diagnosed with eating disorders. Analysis of the data demonstrated that memoirs of people self-identifying as diagnosed with either anorexia or bulimia included differences in linguistic processes, and psychological processes when compared to the novel norm. These differences support the importance of considering thwarted belongingness and acquired capacity when assessing for suicide risk. Results indicate language could be useful in identifying risk of self-harm or suicide in someone diagnosed with either anorexia or bulimia. Findings supported the relationship of thwarted belongingness and acquired capacity for suicide within the experience of people diagnosed with either anorexia or bulimia. These findings suggest the importance of addressing thwarted belongingness and acquired capacity for suicide through treatment interventions. Also highlighted by the study, was the impact that the revision of diagnostic criteria related to eating disorders has on diagnosis, assessment and treatment of eating disorders.
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  • Intellectual Property (patent, etc.)
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  • 2020-01-02 to 2022-03-09

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