Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T13:48:20.877Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Do you believe in magical thinking? Examining magical thinking as a mediator between obsessive-compulsive belief domains and symptoms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2020

Robert E. Fite Open the ORCID record for Robert E. Fite [Opens in a new window] ,
Sarah L. Adut  and
Joshua C. Magee
Robert E. Fite*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Miami University, 90 North Patterson Avenue, Oxford, OH45056, USA
Sarah L. Adut
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Miami University, 90 North Patterson Avenue, Oxford, OH45056, USA
Joshua C. Magee
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Miami University, 90 North Patterson Avenue, Oxford, OH45056, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: robert.e.fite@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background:

Despite substantial research attention on obsessive beliefs, more research is needed to understand how these beliefs serve as aetiological or maintaining factors for obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms. Magical thinking may allow individuals to gain a sense of control when experiencing intrusive thoughts and corresponding obsessive beliefs, potentially accounting for why OC belief domains are often related to OC symptoms.

Aims:

This study examines magical thinking as a mediating variable in the relationship between OC belief domains and symptoms.

Method:

Undergraduate students (n = 284) reported their obsessive beliefs, magical thinking, and OC symptoms.

Results:

As expected, there were significant indirect effects for the belief domain of inflated responsibility and over-estimation of threat on OC symptoms via magical thinking. There was also an indirect effect for the belief domain of importance and control of thoughts on OC symptoms via magical thinking. Unexpectedly, there was no indirect effect involving the belief domain of perfectionism and intolerance of uncertainty.

Conclusions:

Magical thinking may be one mechanism through which certain OC beliefs lead to OC symptoms. It may be that magical thinking serves as a coping mechanism in response to elevated beliefs. Future studies should extend these findings across time and clinical samples.

Keywords

coping mechanismsmagical thinkingobsessive beliefsobsessive-compulsive symptoms
Type
Main
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 48 , Issue 4 , July 2020 , pp. 454 - 462
Copyright
© British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abramowitz, J. S., & Deacon, B. J. (2006). Psychometric properties and construct validity of the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised: replication and extension with a clinical sample. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 20, 1016–1035. doi: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2006.03.001CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
American Psychological Assoication (2017). Ethical priniciples of psychologists and code of conduct (2002, amended 1 June 2010 and 1 January 2017). Retrieved from: http://www.apa.org/ethics/code/index.aspxGoogle Scholar
Amir, N., Freshman, M., Ramsey, B., Neary, E., & Brigidi, B. (2001). Thought–action fusion in individuals with OCD symptoms. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 39, 765–776. doi: 10.1016/S0005-7967(00)00056-5CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bandura, A. (1988). Self-efficacy conception of anxiety. Anxiety Research, 1, 77–98. doi: 10.1080/10615808808248222CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bocci, L., & Gordon, P. K. (2007). Does magical thinking produce neutralising behaviour? An experimental investigation. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 45, 1823–1833. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2007.02.003CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brakoulias, V., Starcevic, V., Berle, D., Milicevic, D., Hannan, A., & Martin, A. (2014). The relationships between obsessive-compulsive symptom dimensions and cognitions in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Psychiatric Quarterly, 85, 133–142. doi: 10.1007/s11126-013-9278-yCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burger, J. M., & Lynn, A. L. (2005). Superstitious behavior among American and Japanese professional baseball players. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 27, 71–76. doi: 10.1207/s15324834basp2701_7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlson, B. D., Mowen, J. C., & Fang, X. (2009). Trait superstition and consumer behavior: re-conceptualization, measurement, and initial investigations. Psychology & Marketing, 26, 689–713. doi: 10.1002/mar.20295CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Case, T. I., Fitness, J., Cairns, D. R., & Stevenson, R. J. (2004). Coping with uncertainty: Superstitious strategies and secondary control. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 34, 848–871. doi: 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2004.tb02574.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cordeiro, T., Sharma, M. P., Thennarasu, K., & Janardhan Reddy, Y. C. (2015). Symptom dimensions in obsessive-compulsive disorder and obsessive beliefs. Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine, 37, 403–408. doi: 10.4103/0253-7176.168579Google ScholarPubMed
Eckblad, M., & Chapman, L. J. (1983). Magical ideation as an indicator of schizotypy. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 51, 215–225. doi: 10.1037/0022-006X.51.2.215CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Einstein, D. A., & Menzies, R. G. (2004). The presence of magical thinking in obsessive compulsive disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 42, 539–549. doi: 10.1016/S0005-7967(03)00160-8CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Einstein, D. A., & Menzies, R. G. (2008). Does magical thinking improve across treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder? Behaviour Change, 25, 149–155. doi: 10.1375/bech.25.3.149CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foa, E. B., Huppert, J. D., Leiberg, S., Langner, R., Kichic, R., Hajcak, G., & Salkovskis, P. M. (2002). The Obsessive-Complusive Inventory: development and validation of a short version. Psychological Assessment, 14, 485–495. doi: 10.1037//1040-3590.14.4.485CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freeston, M. H., Rhéaume, J., & Ladouceur, R. (1996). Correcting faulty appraisals of obsessional thoughts. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 34, 433–446. doi: 10.1016/0005-7967(95)00076-3CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Frost, R. O., Krause, M. S., McMahon, M. J., Peppe, J., Evans, M., McPhee, A. E., & Holden, M. (1993). Compulsivity and superstitiousness. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 31, 423–425. doi: 10.1016/0005-7967(93)90101-YCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hayes, A. F. (2017). Introduction to Mediation, Moderation, and Conditional Process Analysis (2nd edn). New York, NY, USA: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Joukhador, J., Blaszczynski, A., & Maccallum, F. (2004). Superstitious beliefs in gambling among problem and non-problem gamblers: preliminary data. Journal of Gambling Studies, 20, 171–180. doi: 10.1023/B:JOGS.0000022308.27774.2bCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Keinan, G. (1994). Effects of stress and tolerance of ambiguity on magical thinking. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 48–55. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.67.1.48CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kingdon, B. L., Egan, S. J., & Rees, C. S. (2012). The Illusory Beliefs Inventory: a new measure of magical thinking and its relationship with obsessive compulsive disorder. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 40, 39–53. doi: 10.1017/S1352465811000245CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mantz, S. C., & Abbott, M. J. (2017). Obsessive-compulsive disorder in paediatric and adult samples: nature, treatment and cognitive processes. A review of the theoretical and empirical literature. Behaviour Change, 34, 1–34. doi: 10.1017/bec.2017.6CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moulding, R., Anglim, J., Nedeljkovic, M., Doron, G., Kyrios, M., & Ayalon, A. (2011). The obsessive beliefs questionnaire (OBQ): examination in nonclinical samples and development of a short version. Assessment, 18, 357–374. doi: 10.1177/1073191110376490CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moulding, R., & Kyrios, M. (2006). Anxiety disorders and control related beliefs: the exemplar of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Clinical Psychology Review, 26, 573–583. doi: 10.1016/j.cpr.2006.01.009CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moulding, R., & Kyrios, M. (2007). Desire for control, sense of control and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 31, 759–772. doi: 10.1007/s10608-006-9086-xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Myers, S. G., Fisher, P. L., & Wells, A. (2008). Belief domains of the obsessive beliefs questionnaire-44 (OBQ-44) and their specific relationship with obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 22, 475–484. doi: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2007.03.012CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
OCCWG (1997). Cognitive assessment of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 35, 667–681. doi: 10.1016/S0005-7967(97)00017-XCrossRefGoogle Scholar
OCCWG (2005). Psychometric validation of the obsessive belief questionnaire and interpretation of intrusions inventory – Part 2: factor analyses and testing of a brief version. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 43, 1527–1542. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2004.07.010CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Qualtrics (2019). The output for this paper was generated using Qualtrics software. Copyright ©2019 Qualtrics. Qualtrics and all other Qualtrics product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of Qualtrics, Provo, UT, USA. https://www.qualtrics.comGoogle Scholar
Rachman, S. (1997). A cognitive theory of obsessions. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 35, 793–802. doi: 10.1016/S0005-7967(97)00040-5CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rothbaum, F., Weisz, J. R., & Snyder, S. S. (1982). Changing the world and changing the self: a two-process model of perceived control. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42, 5–37. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.42.1.5CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salkovskis, P. M. (1999). Understanding and treating obsessive-compulsive disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 37, S29–S52. doi: 10.1016/S0005-7967(99)00049-2CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Salkovskis, P. M. (1985). Obsessional-compulsive problems: a cognitive-behavioural analysis. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 23, 571–583. doi: 10.1016/0005-7967(85)90105-6CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shafran, R., Thordarson, D. S., & Rachman, S. (1996). Thought-action fusion in obsessive compulsive disorder. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 10, 379–391. doi: 10.1016/0887-6185(96)00018-7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shihata, S., Egan, S. J., & Rees, C. S. (2014). Evaluation of magical thinking: validation of the Illusory Beliefs Inventory. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 43, 251–261. doi: 10.1080/16506073.2014.926391CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sica, C., Novara, C., & Sanavio, E. (2002). Culture and psychopathology: superstition and obsessive-compulsive cognitions and symptoms in a non-clinical Italian sample. Personality and Individual Differences, 32, 1001–1012. doi: 10.1016/S0191-8869(01)00104-0CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siev, J., Steketee, G., Fama, J. M., & Wilhelm, S. (2011). Cognitive and clinical characteristics of sexual and religious obsessions. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy, 25, 167–176. doi: 10.1891/0889-8391.25.3.167CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Terry-Short, L. A., Owens, R. G., Slade, P. D., & Dewey, M. E. (1995). Positive and negative perfectionism. Personality and Individual Differences, 18, 663–668. doi: 10.1016/0191-8869(94)00192-UCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wheaton, M. G., Abramowitz, J. S., Berman, N. C., Riemann, B. C., & Hale, L. R. (2010). The relationship between obsessive beliefs and symptom dimensions in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 48, 949–954. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2010.05.027CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wiedenfeld, S. A., O’Leary, A., Bandura, A., Brown, S., Levine, S., & Raska, K. (1990). Impact of perceived self-efficacy in coping with stressors on components of the immune system. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 1082–1094. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.59.5.1082CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yorulmaz, O., Inozu, M., & Gültepe, B. (2011). The role of magical thinking in obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms and cognitions in an analogue sample. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 42, 198–203. doi: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2010.11.007CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.