OCD Flashcards
OCD
obsessive compulsive disorder
Trichotillomania
compulsive hair pulling
Hoarding disorder
Compulsive gathering of possessions and inability to part with anything
Excoriation disorder
compulsive skin-picking
cycle of OCD
- Obsessive thought
- Anxiety
- Compulsive behaviour
- Temporary relief
Behaviour characteristics of OCD
- Compulsions
- Avoidance
Compulsions
There repetitive - people with OCD repeat a behaviour
(e.g. washing hands, counting, cleaning)
Reduce anxiety - compulsive behaviours are performed to magian anxiety produced by obsessions
(e.g. washing hands is a response to an obsessive fear of germs)
Avoidance
attempt to reduce anxiety by avoiding situations that trigger it
(e.g. suffered who wash compulsively avoid coming into contact with germs)
Avoidance can lead people to avoid ordinary situations such as taking out the bins, interfering with leading a normal life
Emotional characteristics of OCD
Anxiety and distress
Accompanying depression
Guilt and disgust
Anxiety and distress
OCD is an emotional experience because of the anxiety that accompanied both obsessions and compulsions
Urge to repeat a behaviour created anxiety
Accompanying depression
OCD is occompanied by depression so anxiety can be accompanied by low mood and lack of enjoyment in activities
Guilt and disgust
OCD involves guilt
(e.g minor moral issues/disgust)
- may be directed to dirt or themselves
Cognitive characteristics of OCD
- Obsessive thoughts
- Cognitive strategies to deal with
obsessions - Insight into excessive anxiety
Obsessive thoughts
- thoughts that recur over and over again
(e.g. worries of being contaminated by germs/ left door unlocked)
Cognitive strategies to deal with obsessions
(e.g. a religious person tormented by obsessive guilt may respond by praying) - helps manage anxiety
Insight into excessive anxiety
tend to be hyper vigilant - constant alertness + focused on hazards
Biological approach
Physical processes in the body like genetic inheritance and neutral function
genetic explanation
Genes make up chromosomes and consist of DNA which codes physical features of an organism
(eye colour, height) and pyschological features
(mental disorder, intelligence
Genes are transmitted from parents to offspring - inherited
Neural explanation
physical + psychological characteristics are determined by the behaviour of the nervous system (brain and neurons)
Role of serotonin
- neurotransmitter serotonin helps regulate mood
- neurotransmitters relay info from one neurone to another
- low levels of serotonin - transmission of mood-relevant info doesn’t take place - person has low moods
decision - making systems
Frontal lobes - front part of brain responsible for logical thinking/making decisions
Left parahippocampal gyrus - processing unpleasant emotions, functions abnormally in OCD
Diathesis Stress model
Suggests that people develop vulnerability from their genes but we need an environmental trigger
Co - morbidity
having to disorders together
involves the disruption to the action of serotonin - leaves us with a logical problem to serotonin as a possible basis of OCD
Nature
what your born with/inherited genes
Nurture
what you learnt / exposed to
candidate genes
involved on regulating serotonin, a neurotransmitter which facilitates message transfer across synapses
