Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry最新文献

Background and objectives

Over the past 25 years Mental Contamination (MC) has become recognised as a distinct construct, particularly in relation to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). MC is defined as feelings of contamination, often located internally, that arise in the absence of contact with a contaminant, with the source proposed to be human. Despite considerable interest from researchers and clinicians, there has not been a systematic review on the relationship between MC and OCD. Therefore, a systematic review was conducted to summarise and synthesise the current status of phenomenological and experimental evidence, mechanisms, assessment, measurement, and treatment of MC in OCD (PROSPERO: CRD42021223119).

Methods

All study designs were eligible provided the focus of the study was on MC and the implications of the study were linked to OCD. We searched PsychINFO, Embase, Medline, Ethos, ProQuest, conference abstracts and trial registries between 1990 and 2021. The Mixed Methods Appraisal tool was used to assess methodological quality of included studies.

Results

We found 58 reports with a total of 67 studies that met criteria for inclusion in the review. Twenty-three of these studies used clinical samples, 28 were experimental, 12 focused on phenomenology and 8 addressed treatment. The quality of the studies was variable.

Limitations

Grey literature was not included, thus there may be further unpublished MC studies that have not been included in the review.

Conclusions: Based on the findings, mental contamination is a robust clinical construct within OCD that has important implications for understanding and treating the disorder.

Background and Objectives

Individuals with hoarding disorder, especially those with problems around acquiring, typically demonstrate a lack of motivation and awareness of their problematic behaviours. Since acquiring behaviours are important targets in interventions for hoarding, effective strategies for increasing motivation in this population are required to enhance the acceptability and efficacy of these interventions.

Methods

The aim of the current study was to evaluate the ability of a brief online motivational intervention to reduce acquiring in a community sample of high acquirers (N = 159). Participants were randomly assigned to either a motivational interviewing protocol (n = 73) or progressive muscle relaxation control condition (n = 86). Readiness to change and motivation to acquire was measured via self-report, and acquiring behaviour was measured using a modified version of the Preston Acquisition Decision Making Task (to increase ecological validity).

Results

In both conditions, participants’ readiness and motivation to change increased over time. Contrary to hypotheses, the magnitude of this improvement did not significantly differ between conditions. Furthermore, conditions did not perform differently on the behavioural measure of acquiring.

Limitations

Insufficient dose of the intervention may have precluded any differences being observed between conditions.

Conclusions

Results underscore the need to better address the problem of lowered motivation in this population.

Background and objectives

People with Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) evaluate themselves negatively before, during, and after anxiety-provoking social situations, which leads to negative consequences (e.g., performance deficits, memory impairments, and post-event processing). Despite decades of research, little is known regarding whether these evaluations generalize to how they view others. Social projection theory—the belief that others are similar to oneself—might further extend the basic Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) model. Our aim was to understand whether the degree to which people negatively evaluate a visibly anxious person causes them to negatively evaluate themselves.

Methods

172 unselected participants completed several baseline questionnaires. We then randomly assigned participants to provide high-, medium-, or no-evaluation of a videotaped anxious person (i.e., other-evaluations) while we assessed their state anxiety. After, they evaluated the anxious person on multiple criteria. Participants then participated in an impromptu conversation task and subsequently evaluated their own performance.

Results

Although our manipulation was effective, we found no emotional or behavioural differences between conditions. However, people in the high-evaluation condition recalled significantly fewer facts about their conversation partner than did people in the medium- and no-evaluation conditions.

Limitations

After data cleaning, the sample size was slightly smaller than planned; most analyses were nonetheless appropriately powered. Our findings may not generalize beyond unselected undergraduate students; replication in a clinical sample is warranted.

Conclusions

These findings highlight the cognitive consequences (i.e., memory impairments) of other-evaluations, which cognitive behavioural therapists should consider when treating individuals with SAD.

Background and objectives

Negative post-event processing (PEP) is a key maintenance factor of social anxiety, but little is known about the role positive PEP, particularly in relation to situations that are not perceived as stressful. The objective was to examine negative and positive PEP following stressful and pleasant social interactions. We were also interested in how participants remembered and described the interactions.

Methods

Young adults (n = 411) recalled a recent pleasant or stressful social interaction and indicated how much negative and positive PEP they engaged in since the interaction. They also completed questionnaires measuring social anxiety and the memory's phenomenological qualities and wrote a description of the interaction.

Results

Higher social anxiety was linked with more negative and less positive PEP, regardless of whether the interaction was perceived as stressful or pleasant. Participants reporting more negative PEP used more negative words in describing the interaction and their memory was more negative and emotionally intense. Those reporting more positive PEP used more positive and less negative words in their descriptions. For stressful interactions, positive PEP was related to a more positive memory; for pleasant ones, it was related to increased emotional intensity.

Limitations

Limitations included the sample type (restricted age range, non-clinical) and the retrospective, cross-sectional nature of the study.

Conclusions

Results provide insight into PEP following stressful and pleasant social interactions. We also found preliminary evidence that positive PEP may be helpful and protective. Future studies may benefit from longitudinal and mixed methods designs.

Background and objectives

Previous research has highlighted the role of dysfunctional reasoning processes (i.e. “inferential confusion”) in the development and maintenance of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Inferential confusion has previously been found to be a unique predictor of OC symptoms and has shown specificity for OCD. However, these findings have primarily relied on a single self-report questionnaire, and only a limited number of experimentations have been conducted to establish the specificity of inferential confusion to OCD with alternate measures. The current paper demonstrates the relationship of inferential confusion with OCD symptoms in clinical samples by using a task-based measure of inferential confusion.

Methods

Sixty-four OCD participants, as well as thirty anxious and thirty-four healthy controls completed the recently developed Dysfunctional Reasoning Processes Task (DRPT) and related measures. Thirty-five OCD participants then completed sixteen sessions of cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) and completed the same measures post-treatment.

Results

As predicted, dysfunctional reasoning was significantly more elevated for those with OCD relative to control groups. Reduced levels of dysfunctional reasoning during CBT were significantly associated with successful treatment outcome.

Limitations

Clinical implications should be interpreted with caution due to the relatively small sample size.

Conclusions

Our findings support the notion that inferential confusion is an important cognitive factor particularly relevant to OCD that needs to be directly addressed as a mechanism of change in CBT.

Background and objectives

Models are omnipresent in science. We introduce a novel framework to achieve more effective modelling practices in general psychology and experimental psychopathology.

Method

We analyze three types of models that are common in psychology: laboratory models, computational models, and cognitive models. We then evaluate two common ways to assess the translational value of models (phenomenological similarity and deep similarity) as well as an arguably underappreciated way (functional similarity). Functional similarity is based on an assessment of whether variables (e.g., the administration of a pharmacological substance) have a similar effect (a) in the model (e.g., in a fear conditioning procedure) and (b) on the real-life target phenomenon (e.g., on real-life anxiety complaints).

Conclusions

We argue that the assessment of functional similarity is a powerful tool to assess the translational value of models in the field of experimental psychopathology and beyond.

Background and objectives

Reinforcement learning biases have been empirically linked to anhedonia in depression and theoretically linked to social anhedonia in social anxiety disorder, but little work has directly assessed how socially anxious individuals learn from social reward and punishment.

Methods

N = 157 individuals high and low in social anxiety symptoms completed a social probabilistic selection task that involved selecting between pairs of neutral faces with varying probabilities of changing to a happy or angry face. Computational modeling was performed to estimate learning rates. Accuracy in choosing the more rewarding face was also analyzed.

Results

No significant group differences were found for learning rates. Contrary to hypotheses, participants high in social anxiety showed impaired punishment learning accuracy; they were more accurate at choosing the most rewarding face than they were at avoiding the most punishing face, and their punishment learning accuracy was lower than that of participants low in social anxiety. Secondary analyses found that high (vs. low) social anxiety participants were less accurate at selecting the more rewarding face on more (vs. less) punishing face pairs.

Limitations

Stimuli were static, White, facial images, which lack important social cues (e.g., movement, sound) and diversity, and participants were largely non-Hispanic, White undergraduates, whose social reinforcement learning may differ from individuals at different developmental stages and those holding more marginalized identities.

Conclusions

Socially anxious individuals may be less accurate at learning to avoid social punishment, which may maintain negative beliefs through an interpersonal stress generation process.

Background and objectives

Although disgust proneness has been implicated in the development of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), available studies have largely employed cross-sectional designs and the prospective and potentially reciprocal association between disgust proneness and OCD symptoms remains unclear. The present study employs cross lagged panel analysis to examine the prospective and reciprocal association between disgust proneness and OCD symptoms.

Method

A community sample of adults (N = 307) completed symptom measures of disgust proneness and OCD symptoms at four time points with 1 month intervals.

Results

The results showed that the cross-lagged paths from disgust proneness to OCD symptoms were significant (average β = 0.07, p's < 0.001) when controlling for depression. However, the paths from total OCD symptoms to disgust proneness were not significant. In contrast, the cross-lagged paths from disgust proneness to washing OCD symptoms were not significant. However, the paths from washing OCD symptoms to disgust proneness were significant (average β = 0.05, p's < 0.01) when controlling for depression.

Limitations

The study is limited is limited by exclusive reliance on self-report in a nonclinical sample.

Conclusions

The findings offer preliminary evidence suggesting that disgust proneness may be a cause and consequence of OCD depending on the nature of the symptoms. Thus, the longitudinal relation between disgust proneness and OCD may be transactional where one influences the effect of the other.