Manifestation of Incompleteness in OCD as Reduced Functionality & Extended Activity
Manifestation of Incompleteness in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) as Reduced Functionality and Extended Activity beyond Task Completion
Public Library of Science
September 2011
...We found here that the majority of OCD rituals (75%) comprised a ‘tail’, which is a section that follows the functional end of the task that the patients ascribed to their activity. That is, OCD patients typically continued their activity beyond the functional (pragmatic) end of the task. Moreover, acts in the tail were mostly non-functional, and the task could be completed without these acts...
‘Perfectionism’ was suggested to be driven by the ‘attempt to maintain control by reducing the risk of harm and insuring safety’ [25]. Perfectionists trust that they can and should reach perfect performance, and therefore regard anything less than perfect performance as unsatisfactory [26]. OCD significantly correlates with perfectionism...
On the other hand, cognitive mechanisms that focus on non-functional characteristics seem to adhere with the present findings on OCD behavior. Specifically, the ‘precautionary system’ [34] and ‘security motivation’[35], [36] are cognitive mechanisms that interpret the excessive activity in OCD rituals as neutralizing behavior, performed in response to a potential harm...
Altogether, the present study provides evidence for the behavioral manifestation of incompleteness in motor behavior of OCD patients. Focusing on motor behavior limits the present findings to overt compulsions, and they do not necessarily explain the experience of repugnant obsessions that is quite common in OCD...In all, the elevated non-functionality is consistent with the concepts of security motivation, precaution system, and other ‘lack of stop signal theories’ as one of the underlying mechanisms in OCD. The present behavioral evidence for incompleteness should be further implemented in attempts to link between cognitive theories on the underlying mechanism and the phenotypes of OCD. Moreover, it might be translated to novel therapeutic steps in cognitive- behavior therapy of OCD patients.
Manifestation of Incompleteness in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) as Reduced Functionality and Extended Activity beyond Task Completion
Public Library of Science
September 2011
...We found here that the majority of OCD rituals (75%) comprised a ‘tail’, which is a section that follows the functional end of the task that the patients ascribed to their activity. That is, OCD patients typically continued their activity beyond the functional (pragmatic) end of the task. Moreover, acts in the tail were mostly non-functional, and the task could be completed without these acts...
‘Perfectionism’ was suggested to be driven by the ‘attempt to maintain control by reducing the risk of harm and insuring safety’ [25]. Perfectionists trust that they can and should reach perfect performance, and therefore regard anything less than perfect performance as unsatisfactory [26]. OCD significantly correlates with perfectionism...
On the other hand, cognitive mechanisms that focus on non-functional characteristics seem to adhere with the present findings on OCD behavior. Specifically, the ‘precautionary system’ [34] and ‘security motivation’[35], [36] are cognitive mechanisms that interpret the excessive activity in OCD rituals as neutralizing behavior, performed in response to a potential harm...
Altogether, the present study provides evidence for the behavioral manifestation of incompleteness in motor behavior of OCD patients. Focusing on motor behavior limits the present findings to overt compulsions, and they do not necessarily explain the experience of repugnant obsessions that is quite common in OCD...In all, the elevated non-functionality is consistent with the concepts of security motivation, precaution system, and other ‘lack of stop signal theories’ as one of the underlying mechanisms in OCD. The present behavioral evidence for incompleteness should be further implemented in attempts to link between cognitive theories on the underlying mechanism and the phenotypes of OCD. Moreover, it might be translated to novel therapeutic steps in cognitive- behavior therapy of OCD patients.
