Morality and Accountability in a Commercial Weight Management Group

Abstract

Talk about food and eating behaviours invariably contains some reference to morality or accountability. However, there are very few studies that focus upon ;mundane dieting'. This research addresses this by examining 37.83 hours of naturally occurring interaction of how women construct and orient to food and their dieting practices within an everyday type setting. Group members produced accounts with reference to a moral evaluation, such as blame or culpability. It became apparent that both the group leaders and group members could not orient to their behaviour or food without reference to a moral or accountable framework. Implications for health promotion literature and programmes, along with weight management groups are considered.