Emotional responding to salient food cues and effects of food deprivation and consumption were investigated in 32 women with bulimia and 32 control women. One half of each group was food deprived before viewing unpleasant, neutral, pleasant, and food-related pictures. Then participants could eat from a buffet before viewing a parallel picture set. Women with bulimia showed a substantial potentiation of startle responses during viewing of food cues relative to control women. This startle potentiation was attenuated by food deprivation and augmented by increased food consumption. These data support the affective regulation model suggesting that food cues prompt negative affective states in women with bulimia, who are overwhelmed by fasting. The resulting deprivation increases the incentive value of food cues and may thus trigger binge eating.

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Interpersonal behavior is assumed to be motivated by personal goals that an individual develops ontogenetically to satisfy and protect psychological needs. Interpersonal problems are hypothesized to (1) occur as a consequence of strong avoidance goals and (2) lead to decreased satisfaction of the person's approach goals. The hypotheses are tested using the self-report data of 284 subjects with predominantly anxiety, affective and eating disorders who applied for treatment in a clinic offering inpatient cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy. Results indicate that interpersonal problems mediate the relationship between avoidance goals and the satisfaction of approach goals. Additional analyses explore specific associations between avoidance goals and certain kinds of interpersonal problem. Avoidance goals are then located within the interpersonal circle structure. Copyright INTRODUCTIONInterpersonal problems assume a central position in the conceptualization, assessment and treatment of psychological disorders. The importance of interpersonal problems for psychotherapy is mirrored by findings that large proportions of patients' presenting problems and treatment goals are interpersonal (Horowitz, 1979;Grosse Holtforth & Grawe, 2002), and interpersonal problems change with psychotherapy (see, e.g., Grosse Holtforth, Lutz, & Grawe, 2006;Vittengl, Clark, & Jarret, 2003). In addition, many psychological disorders include a central interpersonal component (e.g. social phobia, personality disorders; APA, 2000;Pincus, 2004), and hence many therapeutic interventions target interpersonal problems (e.g. Interpersonal Therapy, IPT; Klerman, Weissman, Rounseville, & Chevron, 1984). Given the central importance of interpersonal problems in psychotherapy, understanding the structure, the determinants and the components of interpersonal problems optimizes psychotherapeutic interventions. The structure of interpersonal problems has been described and successfully tested using the interpersonal circumplex model. In the circumplex model of interpersonal functioning (Leary, 1957) two bipolar axes, love versus hate, and dominance versus submission, define a two-dimensional circular space. Interpersonal problems as well as other interpersonal phenomena can be located , 1997; p. 357). This definition includes that (a) interpersonal behaviors are the result of some intrapersonal ('covert') processes (interpersonal scripts) and (b) the person perceives a current interpersonal behavior (enacted role) as problematic because it deviates from a personal standard, set-value or goal ('would like to'). In the present study we empirically examine motivational goals as potential determinants of interpersonal problems. We outline a motivation-focused conception of intrapersonal processes associated with interpersonal problems, and derive testable hypotheses from this conception. A motivational approach to human behavior assumes that humans act to make perceptions that satisfy their personal goals (Austin & Vancouver, 1996;Grawe, 2004;Powers, 1973)....