Graduation Date
Spring 2017
Document Type
Dissertation/Thesis
Program
Master of Arts degree with a major in Psychology, option Academic Research
Committee Chair Name
William M. Reynolds
Committee Chair Affiliation
HSU Faculty or Staff
Second Committee Member Name
Chris Aberson
Second Committee Member Affiliation
HSU Faculty or Staff
Third Committee Member Name
Carrie Aigner
Third Committee Member Affiliation
HSU Faculty or Staff
Keywords
Chocolate, Craving, Chocolate craving, Chocoholic, Emotional eating, Addiction to chocolate
Subject Categories
Psychology
Abstract
Present research finds that the experience of chocolate craving is unique from other foods (Bruinsma & Taren, 1999). Only two measures on chocolate craving exist, the Attitudes to Chocolate Questionnaire (ACQ; Benton et al., 1998) and the Orientation to Chocolate Questionnaire (OCQ; Cartwright et al., 2007). Both measures theoretically vary and include subscales that measure other eating components, such as guilt-driven restrictive eating. A need for a measure that focuses on the characteristics of chocolate craving and consumption exists. Thus, the Chocolate Craving Inventory (CCI; Whitham & Reynolds, 2014) was created. The purpose of the present study was to examine the reliability and validity of this new scale. A sample of 530 participants completed the survey both in-person and online. As hypothesized, the CCI is a sound measure that exhibited a high internal consistency reliability of .95. The Craving subscale of the ACQ demonstrated strong relationship with the CCI and Approach subscale of the OCQ demonstrated a strong relationship with the CCI. Further evidence for convergent validity was verified by the following measures: the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ; Van Strien et al., 1986) and the Food Cravings Questionnaire-Trait-revised (FCQ-T-r; Cepeda-Benito et al., 2001). Discriminant validity was found between the CCI and measures of depression and social desirability. An exploratory factor analysis revealed a three-factor solution of craving, emotional eating, and daily interference.
Citation Style
APA
Recommended Citation
Whitham, Haley M., "Measuring chocolate craving in adults" (2017). Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects. 25.
https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/etd/25