Beliefs about control and the persistence of cleaning behaviour: an experimental analysis.

Background And Objectives: Low perceived control (PC) and overestimations of controllability have each been related to obsessive compulsive (OC) symptoms and behaviour. OC beliefs and symptoms are also associated with a discrepancy between low perceived control (PC) and a high desire for control (DC). The present study sought to examine the influence of components of PC, low control-related self-efficacy (CSE) and high predicted controllability (PRC), on the persistence of cleaning behaviour and DC ratings.

Methods: A cleaning task was used to observe cleaning time (in seconds) in undergraduate participants (n = 174) under two conditions of each of PRC (high versus low), and CSE (high versus low). DC ratings were taken prior to the cleaning task.

Results: It was demonstrated that PRC and CSE manipulations had differential effects on cleaning times and DC ratings, where significantly longer cleaning times were observed in the high (versus low) PRC condition, and in association with higher DC ratings reported in the low (versus high) CSE condition. However, regression analyses demonstrated that DC, PRC and CSE each accounted for significant variance in observed cleaning times.

Limitations: Teasing apart predictability from controllability is a methodological challenge in the manipulation of perceived control.

Conclusions: Findings highlight the importance of considering components of PC along with DC in OC-phenomenology; these will be discussed in the context of current cognitive theories of and treatments for OCD.