The Effects of Self-Criticism, Reward Sensitivity, and Experiential Avoidance on Emotional Eating/ Kendini Elestirme, Odule Duyarlilik ve Yasantisal Kacinmanin Duygusal Istah Uzerine Etkisi

Although emotional eating is a long-explored topic, the underlying psychological mechanism contributing to it remains unclear. A clear understanding of the psychological processes associated with emotional eating can provide important contributions to help people gain healthy emotional regulations skills and can help with interventions on obesity, which is becoming a widespread problem, to reduce excessive eating behaviors that are also seen in eating disorders. This study aims to investigate the relations between self-criticism, experiential avoidance, reward sensitivity, and emotional eating in university students and to provide scientific data to support the development of interventions. This study included 377 (264 women, 113 men) university students from all levels aged between 18 and 35 years. Sociodemographic form, "Emotional Appetite Questionnaire," "Acceptance and Action Questionnaire2," "Behavioral Inhibition Behavioral Activation Scale," and "Forms of Self-Criticizing and Self-Reassuring Scale" were given to the participants. The findings obtained were analyzed with IBM SPSS 23.0 program. Independent sample ttest, one-way analysis of variance, Pearson's correlation, and regression analysis were used to analyze the data. It was determined that self-criticism, experiential avoidance, and reward sensitivity predicted emotional eating. The variables that predicted negative emotional appetite were experiential avoidance, reassuring self, and hated self, while those that predicted positive emotional appetite were reassuring self and reward sensitivity subscales. Lastly, negative emotional appetite predicted body mass index. These findings show that self-criticism, reward sensitivity, and experiential avoidance have a statistically significant effect on eating behavior on both negative and positive emotions and situations. Keywords: Emotional appetite, self-criticism, reward sensitivity, experiential avoidance. Istanbul Medipol Unviversitesi, Klinik Psikoloji Bolumu, Istanbul, Turkiye Duygusal yeme, uzun suredir arastirilan bir konu olsa da bu durumla iliskili olan psikolojik surecler tam olarak aydinlanmamistir. Duygusal yeme ile iliskili olan psikolojik sureclerin anlasilmasi; kisilere saglikli duygu duzenleme becerilerinin kazandirilmasi, dunyada yayginlasmakta olan obezite problemine mudahale edilmesi ve yeme bozukluklarinda da gorulen asiri yeme davranislarinin azaltilmasi icin onemli katkilar sunabilir. Bu arastirmanin temel amaci universite ogre