--- abstract: A hypothesis is presented for eating disorders that contends that these syndromes together with the phenomenon of the pursuit of thinness are manifestations of female intra-sexual competition. It is argued that the present-day environment of Western coutries presnts a range of conditions that have led to the overactivation or disruption of the archaic female sexual strategy of maximising 'mate value'. The hypothesis deals with the ultimate level of causation and is therefore compatible with a range of theories dealing with the proximate level of causation. altloc: [] chapter: ~ commentary: ~ commref: ~ confdates: ~ conference: ~ confloc: ~ contact_email: ~ creators_id: [] creators_name: - family: Abed given: Riadh T honourific: '' lineage: '' date: 1998-12 date_type: published datestamp: 1999-03-01 department: ~ dir: disk0/00/00/08/00 edit_lock_since: ~ edit_lock_until: ~ edit_lock_user: ~ editors_id: [] editors_name: [] eprint_status: archive eprintid: 800 fileinfo: /style/images/fileicons/text_html.png;/800/1/eatdis~1.htm full_text_status: public importid: ~ institution: ~ isbn: ~ ispublished: pub issn: ~ item_issues_comment: [] item_issues_count: 0 item_issues_description: [] item_issues_id: [] item_issues_reported_by: [] item_issues_resolved_by: [] item_issues_status: [] item_issues_timestamp: [] item_issues_type: [] keywords: 'eating disorders, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, intra-sexual competition, thinness' lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:54:17 latitude: ~ longitude: ~ metadata_visibility: show note: ~ number: 4 pagerange: 525-547 pubdom: FALSE publication: British Journal of Medical Psychology publisher: ~ refereed: TRUE referencetext: ~ relation_type: [] relation_uri: [] reportno: ~ rev_number: 8 series: ~ source: ~ status_changed: 2007-09-12 16:34:31 subjects: - evol-psy - psy-bio succeeds: ~ suggestions: ~ sword_depositor: ~ sword_slug: ~ thesistype: ~ title: The sexual competition hypothesis for eating disorders type: journalp userid: 169 volume: 71