Publications by authors named "Katy Friend"
Background: Recent interest in the role of vulnerability factors in obsessional washing has suggested that disgust sensitivity, danger expectancy and health anxiety may be of interest.
Aims: This study explores the differential impact of these factors on both behavioural and cognitive measures of washing behaviour and is based on a replication of the Jones and Menzies (1997) experiment, during which participants immersed their hands in a noxious compound while rating themselves on a range of measures: the time they subsequently took to wash their hands was measured and danger expectancies were found to be the best predictor of this.
Method: The present study added measures of disgust sensitivity and health anxiety to this experimental methodology while removing factors they found to be of little import to compulsive washing.