Obsessional Beliefs and Symptoms of Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder in a Clinical Sample

The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationships among a broad range of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms and obsessional beliefs in a clinical sample of OCD patients. Ninety-nine treatment-seeking adult OCD patients completed the Obsessive Beliefs Questionnaire and the Obsessive–Compulsive Inventory-Revised. Hierarchical regression analyses, controlling for comorbid symptoms, suggested that washing was predicted by responsibility/threat estimation beliefs. Checking/doubting was not predicted by any obsessional beliefs. Hoarding was predicted by perfectionism/certainty beliefs. Neutralizing was predicted by responsibility/threat estimation beliefs. Obsessing was predicted by importance/control of thoughts and perfectionism/certainty beliefs. Ordering was predicted by perfectionism/certainty beliefs. A principal components analysis of OCD symptom dimensions and accompanying beliefs yielded two components, accounting for 53% of the variance: one, which was labeled “Fear/Threat,” consisted of importance/control of thoughts, obsessing, responsibility/threat estimation, and washing. The second, which was labeled “Incompleteness/Not Just Right,” consisted of neutralizing, perfectionism/certainty, checking/doubting, and hoarding.     

Evaluation of a brief aerobic exercise intervention for high anxiety sensitivity

Anxiety sensitivity, or the belief that anxiety-related sensations can have negative consequences, has been shown to play an important role in the etiology and maintenance of panic disorder and other anxiety-related pathology. Aerobic exercise involves exposure to physiological cues similar to those experienced during anxiety reactions. The present study sought to investigate the efficacy of a brief aerobic exercise intervention for high anxiety sensitivity. Accordingly, 24 participants with high anxiety sensitivity scores (Anxiety Sensitivity Index-Revised scores >28) were randomly assigned to complete either six 20-minute sessions of aerobic exercise or a no-exercise control condition. The results indicated that individuals assigned to the aerobic exercise condition reported significantly less anxiety sensitivity subsequent to exercise, whereas anxiety sensitivity scores among non-exercisers did not significantly change. The clinical research and public health implications of these findings are discussed, and several potential directions for additional research are recommended.     

A proposal for genetically modifying the project of “naturalizing” phenomenology

In this paper, we examine Shaun Gallagher’s project of “naturalizing” phenomenology with the cognitive sciences: front-loaded phenomenology (FLP). While we think it is a productive proposal, we argue that Gallagher does not employ genetic phenomenological methods in his execution of FLP. We show that without such methods, FLP’s attempt to locate neurological correlates of conscious experience is not yet adequate. We demonstrate this by analyzing Gallagher’s critique of cognitive neuropsychologist Christopher Frith’s functional explanation of schizophrenic symptoms. In “constraining” Gallagher’s FLP program, we discuss what genetic phenomenological method is and why FLP ought to embrace it. We also indicate what types of structures a genetically modified FLP will consider, and how such an approach would affect the manner in which potential neurological correlates of conscious experience are conceptually understood and experimentally investigated.

The impact of workaholism on personal relationships

Workaholism involves a reluctance to disengage from work that is evidenced by a tendency to work or think about work anytime and anywhere. Conceptual links made with the transactional model of stress suggest that workaholics focus on work at the expense of personal relationships. The present research tested the proposition that workaholics deny their workaholism and experience greater disturbances in close relationships than do non-workaholics. In addition to workers' own self-ratings, ratings from their partner or spouse were also obtained. Workaholics' ratings of their levels of enjoyment were not significantly different from their partners' ratings, but their self-ratings of drive were significantly higher than partners' ratings. Workaholic and non-workaholic dyads reported similar levels of relationship adjustment. The data indicated that workaholics' self-ratings of their level of workaholism were similar to the ratings provided by their spouse/partner, and that satisfaction with their personal relationship (with their spouse or partner) was minimally affected by workaholism. These findings were replicated 6 months after the first data collection, and demonstrated stability across time. The data suggest that intimate relationships may act as stress buffers for workaholics. Implications are discussed in terms of the transactional model of stress and practices for guidance counsellors.     

Self-fulfilling effects of stigmatizing information on children's social interactions.

The stigmatizing effects of negative expectancies were examined in observations of interactions between children with and without a behavior problem. Ss were 68 pairs of unacquainted boys in Grades 3-6. In each dyad, a normal boy was either told that his partner had a behavior problem or given no expectancy; this expectancy manipulation was crossed with the partner's actual diagnostic status with respect to hyperactivity. The perceivers' expectancy that their partner had a behavior problem as well as the actual diagnostic status of the target adversely affected the boys' interactions. Behavioral data suggest how the expectancies were communicated to the target. The processes underlying interpersonal expectancy effects and the ways in which a childhood stigma can act as a self-fulfilling prophecy are discussed.     

Differential sample response schedules in the acquisition of conditional discriminations by pigeons

Pigeons were trained on four matching-to-sample tasks with various schedule requirements in effect on the sample key. Differential sample-schedule requirements (a differential-reinforcement-of-low-rates of 3 sec in the presence of one sample and a fixed-ratio 16 in the presence of the other) produced rapid rates of acquisition that did not differ across tasks. Nondifferential sample-schedule requirements (fixed-ratio 1, fixed-ratio 16 or a differential-reinforcement-of-low-rates of 3 sec in the presence of both samples) produced slower rates of acquisition, which depended on the difficulty of the discriminations between samples and between comparisons. Patterns of stimulus and position preferences were influenced both by the comparison stimuli in each task and by the sample-schedule requirements. Detailed analyses of acquisition revealed frequent instances of complete differential sample control of comparison responding at intermediate levels of overall “accuracy”.