OCD

Question 1

What is hypervigilance ?

Answer 1

Being on the lookout for signs of the source of the OCD.

Question 2

What is catastrophic thinking?

Answer 2

Thinking that the worst will happen if something is or isn’t done e.g. thinking that a family member may die if the kitchen isn’t cleaned again to get rid of germs.

Question 3

What is OCD?

Answer 3

A condition characterised by obsessions and/or compulsive behaviour. Obsessions are cognitive whereas compulsions are behavioural

Question 4

What is the biological approach?

Answer 4

Genes make up chromosomes and consist of DNA which codes the physical features of an organism (such as eye colour, height) and psychological features (such as mental disorder, intelligence). Genes are transmitted from parents to offspring i.e. inherited

Question 5

What are neural explanations?

Answer 5

The view that physical and psychological characteristics are determined by the behaviour of the nervous system, in particular the brain as well as individual neurone

Question 6

What are obsessions?

Answer 6

internal components because they are recurrent intrusive thoughts (something you think) about the source of the anxiety/ OCD

Question 7

What are compulsions?

Answer 7

external components because they are repetitive behaviours (something you do). These reduce anxiety (usually from an obsessive thought).

Question 8

What is a cognitive characteristic of OCD?

Answer 8

concerned with the ways in which people process information. People with OCD are usually plagued with obsessive thoughts but they also adopt cognitive strategies to deal with these

Question 9

What are the cognitive characteristics of OCD?

Answer 9

Obsessive thoughts
Insight into excessive anxiety
Hypervigilance
Catastrophic thinking

Question 10

What is an insight into excessive anxiety?

Answer 10

people with OCD are aware that their obsessions and compulsions are not rational. <– this is a necessary for a diagnosis of OCD. People with OCD experience catastrophic thoughts about the worst case scenarios that might result in their anxieties were justified.

Question 11

What are the behavioural characteristics of OCD?

Answer 11

Repetitive compulsions
Compulsions reducing anxiety
Avoidance

Question 12

What are repetitive compulsions?

Answer 12

typically people with OCD feel compelled to repeat a behaviour. e.g. handwashing. Other compulsive repetitions include counting, praying and tidying groups of objects such as CD collections

Question 13

What are compulsions that reduce anxiety?

Answer 13

around 10% of people with OCD show compulsive behaviour alone - they have no obsessions, just a general sense of irrational anxiety. However for the vast majority, compulsive behaviour are performed in an attempt to manage the anxiety produced by obsessions. e.g. compulsive handwashing is carried out as a response to an obsessive fear of germs first two here are all one characteristic (compulsions)

Question 14

What is avoidance?

Answer 14

the behaviour of people of OCD may also be characterised by their avoidance as they attempt to reduce anxiety by keeping away from situations that trigger it. People with OCD tend to try to manage their OCD by avoiding situations that trigger anxiety. e.g. people who wash compulsively may avoid coming into contact with germs. However can lead to avoiding ordinary situations <- interfering with a regular life

Question 15

What are the emotional characteristics of OCD?

Answer 15

Anxiety and distress
Accompanying depression
Guilt and disgust

Question 16

What is anxiety and distress?

Answer 16

OCD regarded as a particularly unpleasant emotional experience because of the powerful anxiety that accompanies both obsessions and compulsions. Obsessive thoughts are unpleasant and frightening, and the anxiety that goes with these can be overwhelming. The urge to repeat a behaviour (a compulsion) creates anxiety

Question 17

What is accompanying depression?

Answer 17

OCD is often accompanied by depression, so anxiety can be accompanied by low mood and lack of enjoyment in activities. Compulsive behaviour tends to bring some relief from anxiety but this is temporary

Question 18

What is guilt and disgust?

Answer 18

as well as anxiety and depression, OCD sometimes involves other negative emotions such as irrational guilt, for example over minor moral issues, or disgust, which may be directed against something external like dirt or at the self

Question 19

What is the neural explanation for OCD?

Answer 19

Compulsions -> high levels of dopamine -> compulsive behaviours - overactivity in the basal ganglia impacts caudate nucleus’ ability to suppress worry signals from OFC)

Obsessions -> low levels of serotonin -> obsessive thoughts - higher levels of activity in the OFC which sends more worry signals

Question 20

What is the genetic explanation for OCD?

Answer 20

COMT gene -> one form of the COMT gene leads to lower activity of the gene -> leads to higher levels of dopamine -> overactivity in the basal ganglia impacts the caudate nucleus’ ability to supress worry signals from the OFC

SERT gene -> one form of the gene affects the transportation of serotonin -> this leads to lower levels of serotonin -> higher levels of activity in OFC which sends more worry signals

Question 21

Supporting evidence (genetic)

Answer 21

There is evidence that people are vulnerable to OCD because of their genetic make-up. For example, a review of twin studies found that 68% of MZ twins shared OCD compared to 31% of DZ twins.

This strongly suggests that there is a genetic influence on OCD as people who are more genetically similar were more likely to have OCD in common. This implies that the theory is a valid way of explaining OCD. However, as the concordance rate for MZ twins is not 100% when they share 100% of their genes, this suggests that the genetic explanation is not a complete explanation of OCD, and the environment must play some role in the development of the disorder.

Question 22

Weakness of supporting evidence (genetic)

Answer 22

Twin studies make the assumption that identical twins are only more similar than non-identical in terms of their genes. They overlook that identical twins may also be more similar in terms of shared environments (e.g. non-identical twins might be a boy and girl who have quite different experiences).

Therefore the studies to support the role of genetics can’t strongly support the validity of the theory as they cannot determine cause and effect between genetics and OCD.

Question 23

Strength/weakness (genetic)

Answer 23

Psychologists have not been very successful at determining which genes are involved in OCD. One reason for this is that it seems that several genes are involved and that each genetic variation only increases OCD risk by a fraction.

This suggests that genes play some role in OCD and therefore that it has some validity, but the explanation is unlikely to be very useful because it provides little predictive value (i.e. from the theory, it is very difficult to predict who does and does not have OCD).

Question 24

What are the components of the worry circuit?

Answer 24

Orbital frontal cortex (OFC)
Thalamus
Caudate nucleus (in basal ganglia)

Question 25

What does the OFC do?

Answer 25

sends signal to the thalamus about things that are worrying.

Question 26

What does the thalamus do?

Answer 26

leads to impulse to act and then to stop activity when the impulse lessens.

Question 27

What does the caudate nucleus do?

Answer 27

normally suppresses signals from the OFC. If damaged, it fails to do this and so the thalamus is alerted about minor ‘worry’ signals. It sends signals back to the OFC acting as a worry circuit.

Question 28

What is the thought process in someone without OCD?

Answer 28

- OFC sends a signal about a 'minor' worry - caudate nucleus suppresses the signal - Thalamus has no impact to act - So thalamus does not send a message back to the OFC

Question 29

What is the thought process in someone with OCD? i.e. what is the worry circuit?

Answer 29

- OFC sends a signal about a 'minor' worry (more than usual due to higher activity levels in OFC) - Caudate nucleus is damages so the message continues to the thalamus (it is not supressed) - Thalamus creates the impulse to act - The thalamus sends a message back to the OFC, creating a 'worry circuit'. The recurrent intrusive worries become obsessions, and the repeated impulses to act become compulsions *OFC and caudate nucleus issues are thought to be due to low serotonin, caudate nucleus issues may also be due to high dopamine

Question 30

Supporting evidence (neural)

Answer 30

There is evidence to support the role of some neural mechanisms in OCD. For example, antidepressants that only alter levels of serotonin have been effective in reducing OCD symptoms. (SSRIs) This suggests that the serotonin system is involved in OCD and that therefore the theory has some validity.

Question 31

Undermining evidence (neural)

Answer 31

Research has identified that other brain systems beyond the decision-making systems may sometimes be involved in OCD. No system has been found to always play a role in OCD. This means that we cannot really claim to completely understand the neural mechanisms involved in OCD. Whilst there seems to be brain systems involved in OCD symptoms, this is not consistent across people with the disorder and so whilst the theory has some validity, it is unlikely to be very useful because it provides little predictive value.

Question 32

Supporting + weakness (neural)

Answer 32

There is evidence to suggest that various neurotransmitters and brain systems do not function normally in patients with OCD. However, this does not necessarily mean that this abnormal functioning caused the OCD. This suggests that whilst neural mechanisms play a role in OCD, they may be a result of OCD rather than the cause (i.e. having OCD may cause neurotransmitter levels to change or cause brain system to not function normally). Therefore, from the research we cannot strongly support the internal validity of the theory.

Question 33

Weakness of both

Answer 33

Both explanations are reductionist in that they believe the best way to explain OCD is to break it down into smaller constituent parts of genes, abnormal neurotransmitter levels and abnormal brain circuits. as a result, the explanations are unlikely to be complete explanations of OCD as they underestimate the importance of other factors that may be involved: it has been found that over half of OCD patients in one study had a traumatic experience in their past, and that OCD was more severe in participants with more than one trauma - thus can't be considered to be entirely valid explanations of OCD.