The Completion Compulsion in Human Eating

Informal observation of the adult in the eating situation suggests that he eats in units. Voluntary intake seems to be governed by a kind of quantum principle. If real, this is of considerable psychological significance for there is little reason to believe that satiation, as the fulfillment of a bodily need, is in any sense a discontinuous process. Formal evidence for a sort of completion compulsion is found in striking fashion in a study recently completed by this author under contract with the Quartermaster Corps. In this experiment, male college students were fed nutritionally balanced meals in a small mess hall (lunch and supper only). All food items were served individually and in a particular quantity but Ss were free to eat any quantity and to reorder. The table summarizes the food intake habits of 23 Ss as recorded during