Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T03:46:49.192Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Termination of Checking and the Role of Just Right Feelings: A Study of Obsessional Checkers Compared with Anxious and Non-clinical Controls

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2016

Paul M. Salkovskis ,
Josie Millar ,
James D. Gregory  and
Karina Wahl
Paul M. Salkovskis*
Affiliation:
University of Bath, UK
Josie Millar
Affiliation:
University of Bath, UK
James D. Gregory
Affiliation:
University of Bath, UK
Karina Wahl
Affiliation:
University of Basel, Switzerland
*
Correspondence to Paul Salkovskis, Department of Psychology, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath BA2 7AY, UK. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background: Repeated checking in OCD can be understood from a cognitive perspective as the motivated need to achieve certainty about the outcome of a potentially risky action, leading to the application of Elevated Evidence Requirements (EER) and overuse of subjective criteria. Method: Twenty-four obsessional checkers, 22 anxious controls, and 26 non-clinical controls were interviewed about and rated recent episodes where they felt (a) they needed to check and (b) checked mainly out of habit (i.e. not obsessionally). Results: Both subjective and objective criteria were rated as significantly more important in obsessional checkers than in controls; obsessional checkers also used more criteria overall for the termination of the check, and rated more criteria as “extremely important” than the control groups. The termination of the check was rated as more effortful for obsessional checkers than for the comparison groups. Analysis of the interview data was consistent with the ratings. Feelings of “rightness” were associated with the termination of a check for obsessional checkers but not for controls. Conclusion: Results were consistent with the proposal that the use of “just right feelings” to terminate checking are related to EER.

Keywords

Obsessive compulsive disordercheckingelevated evidence requirementsstopping criteria
Type
Research Article
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 45 , Issue 2 , March 2017 , pp. 139 - 155
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aronowitz, B. R., Hollander, E., Decaria, C., Cohen, L., Saoud, J. B., Stein, D., et al. (1994). Neuropsychology of obsessive compulsive disorder: preliminary findings. Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology, 7, 81–86.Google Scholar
Beck, A. T., Epstein, N., Brown, G. and Steer, R. A. (1988). An inventory for measuring clinical anxiety: psychometric properties. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 56, 893–897. doi: 10.1037/0022-006X.56.6.893 Google Scholar
Beck, A. T., Ward, C. H., Mendelsohn, M., Mock, J. and Erbaugh, J. (1961). An inventory for measuring depression. Archives of General Psychiatry. 18, 561–571.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boone, K. B., Ananth, J., Philpott, L., Kaur, A. and Djenderedjian, A. (1991). Neuropsychological characteristics of nondepressed adults with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology, 4, 96–109.Google Scholar
Boschen, M. J. and Vuksanovic, D. (2007). Deteriorating memory confidence, responsibility perceptions and repeated checking: comparisons in OCD and control samples. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 45, 2098–2109.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Boschen, M. J., Wilson, K. L. and Farrell, L. J. (2011). Attenuating memory distrust in a repeated checking task. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 49, 466–471. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2011.05.001 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coles, M. E., Frost, R. O., Heimberg, R. G. and Rhéaume, J. (2003). “Not just right experiences”: perfectionism, obsessive–compulsive features and general psychopathology. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 41, 681–700. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7967(02)00044-X Google Scholar
Coles, M. E., Heimberg, R. G., Frost, R. O. and Steketee, G. (2005). Not just right experiences and obsessive–compulsive features: experimental and self-monitoring perspectives. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 43, 153–167.Google Scholar
Coles, M. E., Radomsky, A. S. and Horng, B. (2006). Exploring the boundaries of memory distrust from repeated checking: increasing external validity and examining thresholds. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 44, 995–1006. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2005.08.001 Google Scholar
Davey, G. C. L., Startup, H. M., Zara, A., Macdonald, C. B. and Field, A. P. (2003). The perseveration of checking thoughts and mood-as-input hypothesis. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 34, 141–160. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7916(03)00035-1 Google Scholar
Dek, E. C. P., Van Den Hout, M. A., Giele, C. L. and Engelhard, I. M. (2010). Repeated checking causes distrust in memory but not in attention and perception. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 48, 580–587. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2010.03.009 Google Scholar
Dirson, S., Bouvard, M., Cottraux, J. and Martin, R. (1995). Visual memory impairment in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder: a controlled study. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 63, 22–31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ecker, W. and Engelkamp, J. (1995). Memory for actions in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 23, 349–371.Google Scholar
First, M. B., Spitzer, R. L., Gibbon, M. and Williams, J. B. W. (2002). Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV-TR Axis I Disorders, Research Version, Patient Edition. (SCID-I/P) New York: Biometrics Research.Google Scholar
Foa, E. B., Kozak, M. J., Salkovskis, P. M., Coles, M. E. and Amir, N. (1998). The validation of a new obsessive-compulsive disorder scale: the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory. Psychological Assessment, 10, 206–206.Google Scholar
Fowle, H. J. and Boschen, M. J. (2011). The impact of compulsive cleaning on confidence in memory and cleanliness. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 25, 237–243. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2010.09.008 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Freeston, M. H., Rhéaume, J. and Ladouceur, R. (1996). Correcting faulty appraisals of obsessional thoughts. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 34, 433–446. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0005-7967(95)00076-3 Google Scholar
Head, D., Bolton, D. and Hymas, N. (1989). Deficit in cognitive shifting ability in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Biological Psychiatry, 25, 929–937.Google Scholar
Linkovski, O., Kalanthroff, E., Henik, A. and Anholt, G. (2013). Did I turn off the stove? Good inhibitory control can protect from influences of repeated checking. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 44, 30–36. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2012.07.002 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McNally, R. J. (2000). Information-processing abnormalities in obsessive-compulsive disorder. In Goodman, Wayne K. (Ed); Rudorfer, Matthew V. (Ed); et al. (2000). Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: contemporary issues in treatment. Personality and Clinical Psychology Series. (pp.106–116). xxii, 661pp.Google Scholar
Meeten, F. and Davey, G. C. (2011). Mood-as-input hypothesis and perseverative psychopathologies. Clinical Psychology Review, 31, 1259–1275.Google Scholar
Moritz, S., Kloss, M., Von Eckstaedt, F. V. and Jelinek, L. (2009). Comparable performance of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and healthy controls for verbal and nonverbal memory accuracy and confidence: time to forget the forgetfulness hypothesis of OCD? Psychiatry Research, 166, 247–253.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moritz, S., Wahl, K., Zurowski, B., Jelinek, L., Hand, I. and Fricke, S. (2007). Enhanced perceived responsibility decreases metamemory but not memory accuracy in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Behaviour Research and Therapy, 45, 2044–2052.Google Scholar
Rachman, S. (1997). A cognitive theory of obsessions. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 35, 793–802. doi: 10.1016/s0005-7967(97)00040-5 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rachman, S. (2002). A cognitive theory of compulsive checking. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 40, 625–639. doi: 10.1016/s0005-7967(01)00028-6 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Radomsky, A. S., Dugas, M. J., Alcolado, G. M. and Lavoie, S. L. (2014). When more is less: doubt, repetition, memory, metamemory, and compulsive checking in OCD. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 59, 30–39. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2014.05.008 Google Scholar
Radomsky, A. S., Gilchrist, P. T. and Dussault, D. (2006). Repeated checking really does cause memory distrust. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 44, 305–316. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2005.02.005 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rasmussen, S. A. and Tsuang, M. T. (1986). Clinical characteristics and family history in DSM-III obsessive-compulsive disorder. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 143, 317–322.Google Scholar
Rubenstein, C. S., Peynircioglu, Z. F., Chambless, D. L. and Pigott, T. A. (1993). Memory in sub-clinical obsessive-compulsive checkers. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 31, 759–765. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0005-7967(93)90006-G CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Salkovskis, P. M. (1985). Obsessional-compulsive problems: a cognitive-behavioural analysis. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 23, 571–583. doi: 10.1016/0005-7967(85)90105-6 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Salkovskis, P. M. (1996). Cognitive-behavioural approaches to the understanding of obsessional problems. In Rapee, R. M. (Ed.), Current Controversies in the Anxiety Disorders (pp. 103–133). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Salkovskis, P. M. (1999). Understanding and treating obsessive-compulsive disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 37, S29–S52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Savage, C. R., Baer, L., Keuthen, N. J., Brown, H. D., Rauch, S. L. and Jenike, M. A. (1999). Organizational strategies mediate nonverbal memory impairment in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Biological Psychiatry, 45, 905–916.Google Scholar
Savage, C. R., Deckersbach, T., Wilhelm, S., Rauch, S. L., Baer, L., Reid, T., et al. (2000). Strategic processing and episodic memory impairment in obsessive compulsive disorder. Neuropsychology, 14, 141–151.Google Scholar
Savage, C. R. and Rauch, S. L. (2000). Cognitive deficits in obsessive-compulsive disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 157, 1182–1183.Google Scholar
Sher, K. J., Mann, B. and Frost, R. O. (1984). Cognitive dysfunction in compulsive checkers: further explorations. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 22, 493–502. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0005-7967(84)90053-6 Google Scholar
Spielberger, C. D. (1983). Manual for the State-Trait Inventory STAI (form Y). Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.Google Scholar
Startup, H. M. and Davey, G. C. L. (2001). Mood as input and catatrophic worrying. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 110, 83–96. doi: 10.1037/0021-843X.110.1.83 Google Scholar
Startup, H. M. and Davey, G. C. L. (2003). Inflated responsibility and the use of stop rules for catastrophic worrying. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 41, 495–503. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7967(02)00245-0 Google Scholar
Tallis, F., Pratt, P. and Jamani, N. (1999). Obsessive compulsive disorder, checking, and non-verbal memory: a neuropsychological investigation. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 37, 161–166. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7967(98)00075-8 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
van den Hout, M. and Kindt, M. (2003a). Repeated checking causes memory distrust. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 41, 301–316. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7967(02)00012-8 Google Scholar
van den Hout, M. and Kindt, M. (2003b). Phenomenological validity of an OCD-memory model and the remember/know distinction. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 41, 369–378. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7967(02)00097-9 Google Scholar
van den Hout, M. and Kindt, M. (2004). Obsessive-compulsive disorder and the paradoxical effects of perseverative behaviour on experienced uncertainty. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 35, 165–181. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2004.04.007 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Veale, D. M., Sahakian, B. J., Owen, A. M. and Marks, I. M. (1996). Specific cognitive deficits in tests sensitive to frontal lobe dysfunction in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Psychological Medicine, 26, 1261–1269. doi: doi:10.1017/S0033291700035984 Google Scholar
Wahl, K., Salkovskis, P. M. and Cotter, I. (2008). [‘]I wash until it feels right’: the phenomenology of stopping criteria in obsessive-compulsive washing. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 22, 143–161. doi: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2007.02.009 Google Scholar
Wirtz, M. and Caspar, F. (1994). Ratings: Bestimmung und Verbesserung der Übereinstimmung und der Reliabilität: Forschungsberichte aus dem psychologischen. Institut der Universität Bern.Google Scholar
Zielinski, C. M., Taylor, M. A. and Juzwin, K. R. (1991). Neuropsychological deficits in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology, 4, 110–126.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.