When thinking about what to write my paper on, I chose to look at eating disorders because they are growing in today's society and I also have personally seen so many people be affected by them.  I settled on this research question specifically though while I was reading different articles for my ILPs.  When I started looking at articles, I was just looking at eating disorders as a whole but I found a lot of interesting facts about what different factors play a role in the development of eating disorders.  I especially became interested in the role that genetic and biological factors play in an individual's development of an eating disorders.  Many people blame eating disorders on society or just the person themselves but there is much more to it than that and that is why I chose this question to look into what lies beyond those sociocultural factors.  I also chose to focus on the genetic and biological factors because that is an idea that is emerging and there is more and more research being done to provide evidence for this idea.  Because of what I read when researching for my ILPs, I may even go further with my research question and look at how these factors effect just anorexia nervosa and not other eating disorder as it seemed in my research that most research done looks into anorexia nervosa alone.

I'm personally interested in this topic because I have seen people close to me struggle with eating disorders and it's heartbreaking to watch someone go through that.  For two years, I watched one of my best friends let bulimia take over her life and it was one of the scariest things because I was so concerned for her but had no way of helping her.  Also, I was a gymnast my whole life and eating disorders are so common among gymnast that it was crazy to see it affect so many people.  It was sad to watch girls not eat and throw up anything they ate just for a sport or their coach.  I think that because of this, I am directly affected by this issue and would consider myself a stakeholder in this topic.  I also am very interested in this topic and I'm hoping that with this project I can possibly better understand eating disorders and what goes into their development.  

While through the ILPs I discovered that genetic and biological factors play a big role in eating disorders, I don't know exactly how.  I hope with this project to look into different studies that have been done to determine exactly how genetic and biological factors are playing a role in an individual's development of an eating disorder.  I also hope to look into whether or not the genetic and biological factors are influenced greatly by which eating disorder one possesses.  While I do plan to focus on the genetic and biological factors, I do want to discuss briefly the sociocultural factors as well so that is another thing I will have to look more into because I am not sure of what the big sociocultural factors are and what role they play in one's development.  I also plan to learn more about the background of eating disorder, such as how they are classified, what common statistics exist about eating disorders, and how they are affecting society.

With this project I hope to be able to reveal that there is more to eating disorders than just the common sociocultural factors that people believe.  I hope to be able to reveal the genetic and biological factors that can play a role in an individual's development of an eating disorder.  I feel that I will be able to effectively answer my research question in eight to ten pages.  I plan to start my paper with the background of eating disorders and discuss the sociocultural factors briefly and then go into what lies deeper than those factors.  When discussing the genetic and biological factors I plan to use different research studies that have been done as evidence and also discuss the statistics that have developed from those studies on when role those factors play.  I feel that by following this plan I will be able to effectively create an eight to ten page paper that clearly discusses my argument. 

So far throughout the research I've done I have found most people agreeing that there is something more to eating disorders than just the common sociocultural factors.  Reports of anorexia nervosa date back to the nineteenth century proving that there is something more behind eating disorders than just our current society.  Many people agree that those old cases of anorexia nervosa and other evidence point to the idea that there is something else playing a role in the development of eating disorders.

With this question, my working thesis would be "while there are sociocultural factors that play a role in an individual's development of an eating disorder, it goes much deeper than that and there are genetic and biological factors as well."  I feel that this question and working thesis are for the most part balanced on the spectrums of scope, complexity, and controversy.  For the scope of this question it may be on the bigger side since it is looking at eating disorders as a whole but since I am focusing specifically on the genetic factors, I think that helps narrow the scope.  If I wanted to narrow the scope more I could focus specifically on one eating disorder such as anorexia nervosa.  As for on the complexity spectrum, I feel as if this question is balanced and although looking at genetic factors can be complex, I do not feel that it is too complex of a question.  Lastly, for the controversy spectrum, I feel that this question is balanced but slightly on the smaller side due to the fact that it is not an everyday issue.  However, with the growth of eating disorders and their awareness in society today, I feel as if the controversy is growing.  I also think the controversy is there because many people blame eating disorders on society and the person themselves but there is research emerging that states that that is not the case anymore.
