Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T20:01:24.022Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Unwanted Sexual Experiences and Cognitive Appraisals That Evoke Mental Contamination

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2013

Ryotaro Ishikawa ,
Osamu Kobori  and
Eiji Shimizu
Ryotaro Ishikawa*
Affiliation:
Chiba University, Japan
Osamu Kobori
Affiliation:
Chiba University, Japan
Eiji Shimizu
Affiliation:
Chiba University, Japan
*
Reprint requests to Ryotaro Ishikawa, Research Centre for Child Mental Development, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, 1–8–1, Inohana, Chuo–ku, Chiba 2608670, Japan. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background: Mental contamination is a psychological sense of contamination that involves an internal, emotional feeling of dirtiness that may be evoked by unwanted thoughts and images, such as sexual assaults. Aims: This study aimed to investigate which types of unwanted sexual experiences evoke the strongest mental contamination, and to test the hypothesis that cognitive appraisals of an unwanted sexual experience predict indices of mental contamination (i.e. feeling of dirtiness, urge to wash, internal negative emotions, and external negative emotions). Method: 148 female participants were asked to recall their most distressing unwanted sexual experiences. Indices of mental contamination and cognitive appraisals of the experience were then assessed. Results: Our findings indicated that individuals recalling experiences related to rape felt more intense feelings of dirtiness than individuals recalling other types of unwanted sexual experience, such as verbal sexual assault, visual sexual assault, and forcible touching/frottage. In addition, hierarchical regression analyses demonstrated that a cognitive appraisal of perceived violation predicted all of the indices of mental contamination after controlling anxiety, depression, and fear of contact contamination. Conclusions: The present study demonstrated that an individual is at greatest risk of mental contamination if she has experienced rape/attempted rape, and if she makes a cognitive appraisal of violation regarding the incident.

Keywords

Obsessive-compulsive disordercognitive behavioural therapycognitive appraisalstrauma
Type
Research Article
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 43 , Issue 1 , January 2015 , pp. 74 - 88
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2013 

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

Acierno, R., Kilpatrick, D. G. and Resnick, H. S. (1999). Posttraumatic stress disorder in adults relative to criminal victimization: prevalence, risk factors, and comorbidity. In Saigh, P. A. and Bremner, J. D. (Eds.), Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: a comprehensive text (pp. 44–68). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association (2000). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (text rev.,4th ed.). Arlington, VA: APA.Google Scholar
Asukai, N., Kato, H., Kawamura, N., Kim, Y., Yamamoto, K., Kishimoto, J., et al. (2002). Reliability and validity of the Japanese-language version of the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R-J): four studies on different traumatic events. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 190, 175–182.Google Scholar
Bachman, R. and Saltzman, L. (1995). Violence Against Women: estimates from the redesigned survey (NCJ Publication No. 154348). Bureau of Justice Statistics, US: Department of Justice.Google Scholar
Berman, N. C., Wheaton, M. G., Fabricant, L. E. and Abramowitz, J. S. (2012). Predictors of mental pollution: the contribution of religion, parenting strategies, and childhood trauma. Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, 1, 153–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, D. A. (2004). Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for OCD. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Conway, M., Mendelson, M., Giannopoulos, C., Csank, P. A. and Holm, S. L. (2004). Childhood and adult sexual abuse, rumination on sadness, and dysphoria. Child Abuse and Neglect, 28, 393–410.Google Scholar
Cougle, J. R., Lee, H–J., Horowitz, J.D., Wolitzky–Taylor, K. B. and Telch, M. J. (2008). An exploration of the relationship between mental pollution and OCD symptoms. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 39, 340–353.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Coughtrey, A. E., Shafran, R., Knibbs, D. and Rachman, S. J. (2012) Mental contamination in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, 1, 244–250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ehlers, A. and Clark, D. M. (2000). A cognitive model of posttraumatic stress disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 38, 319–345.Google Scholar
Ehlers, A., Mayou, R. A. and Bryant, B. (1998). Psychological predictors of chronic posttraumatic stress disorder after motor vehicle accidents. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 107, 508–519.Google Scholar
El Leithy, S., Brown, G. P. and Robbins, I. (2006). Counterfactual thinking and posttraumatic stress reactions. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 115, 629–635.Google Scholar
Elliott, C. M. and Radomsky, A. S. (2009). Analyses of mental contamination: Part I, experimental manipulations of morality. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 47, 995–1003.Google Scholar
Fairbrother, N., Newth, S. J. and Rachman, S. (2005). Mental pollution: feelings of dirtiness without physical contact. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 43, 121–130.Google Scholar
Fairbrother, N. and Rachman, S. (2004). Feelings of mental pollution subsequent to sexual assault. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 40, 173–189.CrossRefGoogle 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 (OCI). Psychological Assessment, 10, 206–214.Google Scholar
Iyo, M., Shimizu, E., Tanno, Y. and Kobori, O. (2010). Cognitive Behavioural Handbook of Trainees in Japan. Tokyo: Seiwa Publishers.Google Scholar
Ishikawa, R., Kobori, O. and Shimizu, E. (2012). Developing the Japanese Version of the Mental Pollution Questionnaire. Poster presented at 42nd Annual European Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies, Geneva, Switzerland.Google Scholar
Joiner, T. E. (2001). Negative attributional style, hopelessness, depression, and endogenous depression. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 39, 163–173.Google Scholar
Neisser, U. (1976). Cognition and Reality. San Francisco: Freeman.Google Scholar
Olatunji, B. O., Elwood, L. S., Williams, N. L. and Lohr, J. M. (2008). Mental pollution and PTSD symptoms in victims of sexual assault: a preliminary examination of the mediating role of trauma-related cognitions. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy, 22, 37–47.Google Scholar
Omiya, S., Kobori, O., Tomoto, A., Igarashi, Y. and Iyo, M. (2011). Development of the Japanese version of substance use risk profile scale. Japanese Journal of Alcohol Studies and Drug Dependence, 46, 175.Google Scholar
Rachman, S. (1994). Pollution of the mind. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 32, 311–314.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rachman, S. (1997). A cognitive theory of obsessions. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 35, 793–802.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rachman, S. (1998). A cognitive theory of obsessions: elaborations. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 36, 385–401.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rachman, S. (2003). The Treatment of Obsessions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rachman, S. (2004). Fear of contamination. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 42, 1227–1255.Google Scholar
Rachman, S. (2006). The Fear of Contamination: assessment and treatment (Cognitive behaviour therapy: Science and practice). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rachman, S., Radomsky, A. S., Elliott, C. M. and Zysk, E. (2012). Mental contamination: the perpetrator effect. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 43, 587–593.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Radomsky, A. S. and Elliott, C. M. (2009). Analyses of mental contamination: Part 2, individual differences. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 47, 1004–1011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rasmussen, S. A. and Eisen, J. L. (1992). The epidemiology and clinical features of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 15, 743–758.Google Scholar
Reiss, S., Peterson, R. A., Gursky, D. M. and McNally, R. J. (1986). Anxiety sensitivity, anxiety frequency, and the prediction of fearfulness. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 24, 1–8.Google Scholar
Salkovskis, P. M. (1985). Obsessional-compulsive problems: a cognitive-behavioural analysis. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 23, 571–583.Google Scholar
Salkovskis, P. M. (1999). Understanding and treating obsessive-compulsive disorder [Special issue]. Behaviour Research and Therapy, S29–S52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Salkovskis, P. M., Wroe, A. L., Gledhill, A., Morrison, N., Forrester, E., Richards, C., et al. (2000). Responsibility attitudes and interpretations are characteristic of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 38, 347–372.Google Scholar
Sasagawa, M., Konishi, T., Ando, K., Sato, S., Takahashi, M., Ishi, T. and Sato, S. (1998). Sexual victimization in Japanese adult women. The Japanese Association of Criminology, 64, 202–212.Google Scholar
Shafran, R., Thordarson, D. S. and Rachman, S. (1996). Thought-action fusion in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 10, 379–391.Google Scholar
Steil, R, Jung, K. and Stangier, U. (2011). Efficacy of a two-session program of cognitive restructuring and imagery modification to reduce the feeling of being contaminated in adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse: a pilot study. Journal of Behaviour Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 42, 325–329.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
US Department of Health and Human Services, Office on Women's Health (2009). Sexual assault fact sheet: what is sexual assault?. Retrieved from http://www.womenshealth.gov/publications/our-publications/fact-sheet/sexual-assault.cfm Google Scholar
Weiss, D. S. and Marmar, C. R. (1997). The impact of event scale-revised. In Wilson, J. P. and Keane, T. M. (Eds.), Assessing Psychological Trauma and PTSD. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Woicik, P. A., Stewart, S. H., Pihl, R. O. and Conrod, P. J. (2009). The Substance Use Risk Profile Scale: a scale measuring traits linked to reinforcement-specific substance use profiles. Addict Behaviors, 34, 1042–1055.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.