Reappraising beliefs about losing control: An experimental investigation.

Background And Objectives: Beliefs about losing control over one's thoughts, emotions, behaviours, and/or bodily functions have been shown to cause obsessive-compulsive symptoms. The cognitive model of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) suggests that catastrophic misappraisals of intrusions will lessen if underlying maladaptive beliefs are effectively reduced. The primary aim of this study was to experimentally investigate whether preexisting negative appraisals about losing control could be reduced by reappraising a previous perceived loss of control.

Development and psychometric evaluation of the Violation Appraisal Measure (VAM).

Mental contamination refers to feelings of dirtiness and/or urges to wash that arise without direct contact with a contaminant. Cognitive models propose that this results from "serious, negative misappraisals of perceived violations". However, the specific violation misappraisals most relevant to mental contamination have yet to be established empirically, in part due to the lack of a comprehensive validated inventory of violation appraisals.

'Things that shouldn't be': a qualitative investigation of violation-related appraisals in individuals with OCD and/or trauma histories.

Background: Cognitive models of mental contamination (i.e. feelings of internal dirtiness without contact with a contaminant) propose that these feelings arise when individuals misappraise a violation.

At the mercy of myself: A thematic analysis of beliefs about losing control.

Purpose: Concerns about the likelihood, consequences, and meaning of losing control are commonplace across anxiety-related disorders. However, several experimental studies have suggested that individuals without a diagnosis of a mental disorder also believe that they can and will lose control under the right circumstances. Understanding the range of beliefs about the nature and consequences of losing control can help us to better understand the continuum of negative beliefs about losing control.

What's control got to do with it? A systematic review of control beliefs in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Current conceptualizations of control-related beliefs in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) have largely been limited to beliefs about the need to control thoughts. Although growing evidence supports the notion of considering broader control-related constructs in this disorder, there has been limited research aimed at integrating findings across studies, making it difficult to determine how different control-related beliefs may influence OCD symptoms. The current review sought to systematically analyze findings from all studies investigating the relationship between control beliefs and OCD.

Beliefs about losing control and other OCD-related cognitions: An experimental investigation.

Background And Objectives: Cognitive theories of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) suggest that dysfunctional beliefs influence symptoms. However, well-established belief domains do not fully explain OCD symptomatology, suggesting other cognitive mechanisms may be involved. An additional belief domain which may play a role in OCD is beliefs about losing control.

Putting things right: An experimental investigation of memory biases related to symmetry, ordering and arranging behaviour.

Background And Objectives: Research indicates the presence of both explicit and implicit memory biases for threat. However, empirical support for the presence of memory biases related to symmetry, ordering and arranging is lacking, despite the fact that many individuals report anxiety associated with their personal belongings being out of place. The aim of this experiment was to examine memory biases for disorderliness and their associations with symmetry, ordering and arranging symptoms.

An Experimental Investigation of Moral Self-Violation and Mental Contamination.

Purpose: Cognitive models of mental contamination (feelings of dirtiness/washing behaviour that arise without direct contact with a contaminant) highlight the central role of perceptions of violation in the onset and maintenance of these feelings. Little research has been done to clarify violation-specific appraisals relevant to mental contamination. Perceptions of violation of one's moral self-concept may represent one such appraisal domain.

Can immorality be contracted? Appraisals of moral disgust and contamination fear.

While extant research underlines the role of disgust in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) with contamination fear, less research attention has been devoted to moral disgust. This study endeavored to examine the types of appraisals that are elicited by moral disgust in comparison to core disgust, and to examine their associations with both contact and mental contamination symptoms. In a within-participants design, 148 undergraduate students were exposed to core disgust, moral disgust, and anxiety control elicitors via vignettes, and provided appraisal ratings of sympathetic magic, thought-action fusion and mental contamination, as well as compulsive urges.

Always Saying the Wrong Thing: Negative Beliefs About Losing Control Cause Symptoms of Social Anxiety.

Background: Individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD) often report a fear that they will lose control of their emotions or report intense, unpleasant thoughts or images of uncontrollably humiliating themselves in social situations. These fears and associated beliefs that one is likely to lose control may underlie the anxiety and/or cognitive biases (e.g.

The fear of losing control.

Although a great deal of research has focused on various aspects of control and their relations to psychopathology, new insights and therapeutic potential could be revealed through an examination and perhaps emphasis on fears of losing control. Although elements of control-related beliefs and phenomena have been highlighted in association with obsessive-compulsive disorder and social anxiety disorder, this paper will give a fresh perspective on fears and beliefs about losing control, with implications for understanding and perhaps treating a broad range of psychological problems including panic disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and others. New research questions and hypotheses are proposed, along with potential implications for expanded research into this domain and for clinical applications within a cognitive-behavioural approach.

Responsibility, probability, and severity of harm: An experimental investigation of cognitive factors associated with checking-related OCD.

The cognitive model of compulsive checking (Rachman, 2002) proposes that perceptions of responsibility, seriousness of harm and probability of harm interact to promote checking behaviour. We examined these factors in an ecologically valid experimental paradigm. Two groups of participants (participants with OCD who compulsively check and undergraduate controls) were assigned to a high or low responsibility condition, and then checked objects representing: (a) high seriousness of harm (stove burners), (b) low seriousness of harm (light bulbs), (c) high probability of harm (functional burners and bulbs), and (d) low probability of harm (non-functional burners and bulbs).

Fear and Anxiety in COVID-19: Preexisting Anxiety Disorders.

The general population has experienced a significant elevation in fear and anxiety during COVID-19 both as a direct result of the virus but also due to measures taken to prevent it spreading, such as the need to stay inside and increase hand-washing. Lockdown has been used in many/most countries to prevent widespread infection. The advice and imposed actions are necessary to prevent the virus from spreading, but they might exacerbate the problems experienced by people with a preexisting anxiety-related disorder.

Development and validation of the multidimensional version of the fear of self questionnaire: Corrupted, culpable and malformed feared possible selves in obsessive-compulsive and body-dysmorphic symptoms.

In recent years, cognitive-behavioural models of OCD have increasingly recognized the potential role of feared possible selves in the development and maintenance of OCD, while simultaneously re-examining factors that have historically been linked to self-perceptions in OCD. The current article describes the development and validation of a multidimensional version of the Fear of Self Questionnaire (FSQ-EV) in a non-clinical (N = 626) and clinical OCD sample (N = 79). Principal component analyses in the non-clinical sample revealed three conceptually and factorially distinct components revolving around a feared corrupted possible self, a feared culpable possible self and a feared malformed possible self.

"Was I asking for it?": An experimental investigation of perceived responsibility, mental contamination and workplace sexual harassment.

Background And Objectives: Mental contamination (i.e., contamination concerns that arise in the absence of direct contact with a contaminant) is a common symptom in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

The Covert and Overt Reassurance Seeking Inventory (CORSI): Development, validation and psychometric analyses.

Background: Reassurance seeking (RS) is motivated by perceived general and social/relational threats across disorders, yet is often under-recognized because it occurs in covert (i.e. subtle) and overt forms.

Prediction Errors in Depression: A Quasi-Experimental Analysis.

The overprediction and underprediction of fear, pain, and other constructs have been linked with etiology and maintenance of anxiety disorders. We aimed to extend this research to depression by investigating the overprediction of effort and the underprediction of reward and enjoyment associated with a simple task. Participants with depression ( = 20) and a control group ( = 40) predicted how much effort and reward/enjoyment would be experienced during a short walk around the university.

Cognitive therapy for compulsive checking in obsessive-compulsive disorder: A pilot trial.

We evaluated a novel, empirically-based cognitive therapy for compulsive checking - a common form of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Twelve adults completed 12 sessions of the therapy. Significant reductions in checking-related symptoms were found pre- to post-treatment, and pre-treatment to 6-month follow-up (moderate to large effect sizes).

Beliefs about losing control, obsessions, and caution: An experimental investigation.

Fear of acting on unwanted impulses (e.g., stabbing a loved one) and avoidance of threatening stimuli (e.

What do you really need? Self- and partner-reported intervention preferences within cognitive behavioural therapy for reassurance seeking behaviour.

Background: Reassurance seeking (RS) in obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is commonly addressed in cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) using a technique called reducing accommodation. Reducing accommodation is a behaviourally based CBT intervention that may be effective; however, there is a lack of controlled research on its use and acceptability to clients/patients, and case studies suggest that it can be associated with negative emotional/behavioural consequences. Providing support to encourage coping with distress is a cognitively based CBT intervention that may be an effective alternative, but lacks evidence regarding its acceptability.

The development and validation of the Beliefs About Losing Control Inventory (BALCI).

Cognitive theory of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) proposes that maladaptive beliefs play a pivotal role in the development and maintenance of symptoms. Clinical reports as well as recent psychometric and experimental investigations suggest that control-related beliefs in OCD may benefit from expansion to include aspects of control. However, currently available measures either focus on other facets of control (e.