Thesis (M.A.) -- University of Texas at Arlington, 2008.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is associated with brain abnormalities in the areas that regulate emotions, and it is postulated that people with OCD have difficulty downregulating ( = reducing) their negative emotions. This study recruited 20 participants with OCD and 20 controls to rate 294 emotional photos (emotional stimuli not related to OCD) for emotional valence. Participants were then asked to downregulate while they saw the 20 photos with the highest negative ratings and 20 photos with the highest positive ratings. Participants with OCD had more difficulty downregulating their negative emotions than controls. Evidence for that is that (1) participants with OCD gave significantly higher ratings to the affectively negative photos in the postregulation phase, after adjusting for their preregulation ratings and (2) participants with OCD took significantly more time to regulate both their negative and positive emotions. The findings suggest that individuals with OCD not only present with the symptoms that are specified in the OCD diagnostic criteria of DSM-IV TR (American Psychiatric Association, 2000), but also with difficulty downregulating their negative emotions to non obsessive-compulsive (nonOC) affectively negative stimuli. Clinicians may consider adding emotion regulation skills to psychological treatments of OCD. / published_or_final_version / Clinical Psychology / Doctoral / Doctor of Psychology

According to the cognitive model, Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is maintained by various belief factors such as an inflated sense of responsibility, perfectionism and an overestimation about the importance of thoughts. Despite much support for this hypothesis, there is a lack of understanding about the role of self-concept in the maintenance or treatment of OCD. Guidano and Liotti (1983) suggest that individuals who are ambivalent about their self-worth, personal morality and lovability use perfectionistic and obsessive compulsive behaviours to continuously restore self-esteem. This thesis develops a model of OCD that integrates self-ambivalence in the cognitive model of OCD. (For complete abstract open document)

Thesis (M. App. Psych.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Psychology, 1994? / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 69-74).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2004. / Advisor: Dr. Thomas E. Joiner, Jr., Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Psychology. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 23, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Victoria University of Wellington, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Rowan University, 2005. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Canterbury, 2005. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 256-326). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / Compulsive hoarding is a serious disorder that causes significant impairment in the home. While compulsive hoarding has been traditionally associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), standard OCD treatments have been mostly ineffective for hoarding. Recent research has provided evidence that hoarding has a distinct profile that could indicate a separate disorder. Further understanding of hoarding may advance classification and treatment. One understudied aspect of hoarding is excessive acquisition. Acquisition behaviors in hoarding appear to share similarities with impulse control disorders. While preliminary research has suggested elevated impulsivity in those who hoard, prior studies have been inconsistent in their measurement of impulsivity. Also, the relationship between impulsivity and excessive acquisition behaviors remains unexplored. This study assessed impulsivity in hoarding (n = 32) and anxiety disorder (n = 32) participants using a multi-dimensional model of impulsivity. Participants underwent a diagnostic assessment and completed self-report forms and neuropsychological tasks measuring impulsivity. Participants also completed an experimental task to assess acquiring behaviors after a mood induction. Participants completed measures of affect and state impulsivity, before and after a negative or neutral mood induction. There were no significant differences between diagnostic groups on self-reported impulsivity levels. Significant between-group differences were found on several neuropsychological tasks. Those with hoarding had significantly poorer response inhibition and lowered levels of adaptive and maladaptive risk-taking than participants with anxiety disorders. A diagnosis of hoarding predicted these outcomes independent of social phobia, generalized anxiety disorder, and major depressive disorder. In the acquisition task, the hoarding group acquired significantly more items than the anxiety disorder group but there was not a significant interaction effect with mood induction condition. The hoarding group had a significantly greater increase in state impulsivity across time but there was also not an interaction effect with mood induction condition. An analysis designed to assess whether state impulsivity mediated the relationship between negative affect and acquisition behaviors failed to find a significant indirect effect. Overall, study findings suggest differences in impulsivity for those who hoard as compared to those with an anxiety disorder. A continued emphasis on understanding impulsivity in hoarding could further diagnostic classification and treatment development. / 2031-01-02

The current study examined the psychometric properties of the Pathways to Inflated Responsibility Beliefs Scale (PIRBS; Coles & Schofield, 2008), a measure designed to assess the theoretical pathways posited to contribute to responsibility beliefs in individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD; Salkovskis et al., 1999). The primary aim of this study was to examine the factor structure, reliability, and validity of the measure in a diverse sample as well as to compare the properties of the scale across ethnic groups. The current sample consisted of 442 university students who completed questionnaire packets or an online survey. The results of an exploratory factor analysis suggested that a four-factor model with three items removed from the original PIRBS scale best fit the data. Confirmatory factor analyses in groups of African American and Caucasian participants indicated that neither the original PIRBS model nor the EFA-derived model adequately fit the data, but the latter model demonstrated comparable indicators of validity as well as an improvement in the internal consistency of the PIRBS Overprotection subscale. Evidence of the convergent and discriminant validity of the PIRBS was obtained through its associations with OCD-relevant constructs, including OC beliefs domains and symptoms, trait anxiety and worry, depression, parenting styles, a measure of childhood responsibility, and religiosity. Some differential associations were observed in these relationships across ethnic groups. Suggestions for future research and the clinical implications of research in this area are discussed.