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
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:HKU/oai:hub.hku.hk:10722/179886 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Tong, Sung-ki, Bianca., 湯崇琪. |
| Publisher | The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) |
| Source Sets | Hong Kong University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | PG_Thesis |
| Source | http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B47657376 |
| Rights | The author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights) and the right to use in future works., Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License |
| Relation | HKU Theses Online (HKUTO) |
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