Abstract

LUGLI, Zoraide. Control of Behavior in People with Different Body Mass Indexes. Pensam. psicol. [online]. 2018, vol.16, n.1, pp.83-94. ISSN 1657-8961.

Objective. To compare perceived self-efficacy in weight regulation, weight locus of control and weight self-regulation in people with different body mass indexes. Method. A non-experimental correlational and cross-sectional design was used, in which 338 people participated voluntarily with different weights, 242 women and 92 men with ages between 18 and 64 years old (M = 31.51; SD =10.83). The following scales were used: Weight Self-Regulation Inventory, Perceived Self-efficacy in Weight Regulation Inventory and Weight Locus of control Inventory. Results. Obese people showed significantly lower scores than people with normal weight for the self-efficacy inventory in doing daily physical activity. However, people who are overweight were not differentiated from either of these two groups. Significant differences were observed in the internal and other powerful dimensions of the locus of control, where people with normal weight showed significantly lower test scores; in turn, these last two groups did not differ between each other. Finally there were no significant differences in the self-report of their skills of self-regulation. Conclusion. The results obtained contradict the belief that obese people lack self-control to perform healthy behaviors, and that this deficit differentiates them from normal people.

Keywords : Body mass index; control behavior; healthy behaviors.

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