psychopathology GENETIC EXPLANATIONS FOR OCD

Question 1

COMBO, WIDE VARIETY OF EVIDENCE

Answer 1

There is evidence from a wide source for the idea that’s some people are vulnerable to OCD due to their genetic make up.
Nestadt et al (2010) reviewed previous twin studies and found that 68% of identical twins shared OCD as opposed to 31% o0f non-identical twins.
This strongly suggests that there us a genetic influence on OCD.
However, twin studies are a flawed evidence as they assume than identical twins are only more similar in terms of genes, and don’t distinguish between nature and nurture

Question 2

LIMITATION, DOUBLE WHOPPER, HAVEN’T FOUND ALL GENES CONNECTED TO OCD

Answer 2

Despite twin studies suggesting that OCD is largely genetic psychologists have not been successful in identifying in all of genes involved in OVCD and each genetic variation only increases the risk of OCD by a fraction.
The consequences is that a genetic explanation is unlikely to be very useful. This is because it provides little predictive value about whether an individual will develop OCD and what type.

Question 3

LIMITATION, DOUBLE WHOPPER, SUPPORTING EVIDENCE

Answer 3

There is evidence that environmental factors can also trigger or increase the risk of developing OCD.
Cromer et al (2007) found that over half the OCD patients in their sample has a traumatic event in their past and that OCD was more than one trauma.
This suggests that OCD cannot be entirely genetic therefore it may be more productive to focus on environmental causes because we’re more likely able to do something about these.