Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T02:06:28.952Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Inversion of the “Unrealistic Optimism” Bias Contributes to Overestimation of Threat in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 January 2009

Steffen Moritz  and
Lena Jelinek
Steffen Moritz*
Affiliation:
University Medical Centre, Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany
Lena Jelinek
Affiliation:
University Medical Centre, Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany
*
Reprint requests to Steffen Moritz, University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Martinistrasse 52, 20246 Hamburg, Germany. E-mail: moritz@uke.uni-hamburg.de
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background: Overestimation of threat (OET) is ascribed a pathogenetic role in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Aims: We hypothesized that OCD patients overestimate their personal but not the average risk for OCD-related events. Specifically, an attenuation of the common “unrealistic optimism” bias (UO) was expected for OCD patients. UO refers to the phenomenon that the subjective likelihood to personally experience a positive event is enhanced compared to other persons and vice versa for negative events. Method: Fifty-three participants with OCD as well as 40 healthy and 23 psychiatric controls participated in an internet survey. They were asked several questions about different event types (positive, negative, and OCD-related): the probability that this event will happen to oneself (block 1), to another person (block 2), comparison between oneself versus another person (block 3), appraisal of consequences (block 4), and prior encounters with event (block 5). Results: No evidence was obtained in OCD to overestimate the overall probability of negative or OCD-related events. However, whereas healthy participants displayed an UO bias, OCD participants perceived themselves as more vulnerable to experience OCD-related events. Conclusions: Results indicate that OCD is associated with inflated personal vulnerability and that this bias is not fully available to the consciousness of OCD participants.

Keywords

Obsessive-compulsive disorderoverestimation of threatanxietyunrealistic optimism
Type
Research Article
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , March 2009 , pp. 179 - 193
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2009

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

Beck, A. T., Ward, C. H., Mendelson, M., Mock, J. and Erbaugh, J. (1961). An inventory for measuring depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 4, 561–571.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carr, A. T. (1974). Compulsive neurosis: a review of the literature. Psychological Bulletin, 81, 311–318.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chinman, M., Young, A. S., Schell, T., Hassell, J. and Mintz, J. (2004). Computer-assisted self-assessment in persons with severe mental illness. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 65, 1343–1351.Google Scholar
Coles, M. E., Cook, L. M. and Blake, T. R. (2007). Assessing obsessive compulsive symptoms and cognitions on the internet: evidence for the comparability of paper and Internet administration. Behavior Research and Therapy, 45, 2232–2240.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fischhoff, B. (1975). Hindsight/foresight: the effect of outcome knowledge on judgement under uncertainty. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1, 288–299.Google Scholar
Foa, E. B., Cashman, L., Jaycox, L. and Perry, K. (1997). The validation of a self-report measure of posttraumatic stress disorder: the posttraumatic diagnostic scale. Psychological Assessment, 9, 445–451.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gamble, S. A., Talbot, N. L., Duberstein, P. R., Conner, K. R., Franus, N., Beckman, A. M. and Conwell, Y. (2006). Childhood sexual abuse and depressive symptom severity: the role of neuroticism. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 194, 382–385.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gold, R. S. and Aucote, H. M. (2003). “I'm less at risk than most guys”: gay men's unrealistic optimism about becoming infected with HIV. International Journal of STD and AIDS, 14, 18–23.Google Scholar
Hodgson, R. and Rachman, S. (1977). Obsessive-compulsive complaints. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 15, 389–395.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, M. K. and Menzies, R. G. (1997). Danger ideation reduction therapy (DIRT): preliminary findings with three obsessive-compulsive washers. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 35, 955–960.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jones, M. K. and Menzies, R. G. (2002). Danger Ideation Reduction Therapy. Encyclopedia of Psychotherapy, 1, 615–619.Google Scholar
Jones, S. R., Fernyhough, C., de-Wit, L. and Meins, E. (2008). A message in the medium? Assessing the reliability of psychopathology e-questionnaires. Personality and Individual Differences, 44, 349–359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lange, A., van de Ven, J. P. and Schrieken, B. (2003). Interapy: treatment of post-traumatic stress via the internet. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 32, 110–124.Google Scholar
Lochner, C., du Toit, P. L., Zungu-Dirwayi, N., Marais, A., van Kradenburg, J., Seedat, S., Niehaus, D. J. and Stein, D. J. (2002). Childhood trauma in obsessive-compulsive disorder, trichotillomania, and controls. Depression and Anxiety, 15, 66–68.Google Scholar
Meyerson, P. and Tryon, W. W. (2003). Validating internet research: a test of the psychometric equivalence of internet and in-person samples. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, and Computers, 35, 614–620.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moritz, S. and Pohl, R. F. (2006). False beliefs maintenance for fear-related information in obsessive-compulsive disorder: an investigation with the hindsight paradigm. Neuropsychology, 20, 737–742.Google Scholar
Obsessive Compulsive Cognitions Working Group (1997). Cognitive assessment of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 35, 667–681.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Obsessive Compulsive Cognitions Working Group (2001). Development and initial validation of the obsessive beliefs questionnaire and the interpretation of intrusions inventory. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 39, 987–1006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Obsessive Compulsive Cognitions Working Group (2003). Psychometric validation of the Obsessive Beliefs Questionnaire and the Interpretation of Intrusions Inventory: Part I. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 41, 863–878.Google Scholar
Obsessive Compulsive Cognitions Working Group (2005). Psychometric validation of the Obsessive Beliefs Questionnaire and the Interpretation of Intrusions Inventory – Part II: factor analyses and testing of a brief version. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 43, 1527–1542.Google Scholar
Riskind, J. H., Abreu, K., Strauss, M. and Holt, R. (1997). Looming vulnerability to spreading contamination in subclinical OCD. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 35, 405–414.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ritter, P., Lorig, K., Laurent, D. and Matthews, K. (2004). Internet versus mailed questionnaires: a randomized comparison. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 6, e29.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Riva, G., Teruzzi, T. and Anolli, L. (2003). The use of the internet in psychological research: comparison of online and offline questionnaires. Cyberpsychology and Behaviour, 6, 73–80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Salkovskis, P. M. and Forrester, E. (2002). Responsibility. InFrost, R. O. and Steketee, G. (Eds.), Cognitive Approaches to Obsessions and Compulsions: theory, assessment, and treatment (pp. 45–62). Oxford: Pergamon.Google Scholar
Steketee, G., Frost, R. O. and Cohen, I. (1998). Beliefs in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 12, 525–537.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tolin, D. F., Worhunsky, P. and Maltby, N. (2006). Are “obsessive” beliefs specific to OCD? A comparison across anxiety disorders. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 44, 469–480.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weinstein, N. D. (1982). Unrealistic optimism about susceptibility to health problems. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 5, 441–460.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weinstein, N. D., Marcus, S. E. and Moser, R. P. (2005). Smokers' unrealistic optimism about their risk. Tobacco Control, 14, 55–59.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Woods, C. M., Frost, R. O. and Steketee, G. (2002). Obsessive compulsive (OC) symptoms and subjective severity, probability, and coping ability estimations of future negative events. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 9, 104–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.