How Is The Obsessive-compulsive Personality Profile Created?
Originally, the terms “obsession” and “compulsion” were defined in Latin as “being surrounded, besieged, blocked” and “being forced to do something one does not want to do,” respectively.
More recently, the description applied in psychology to obsessive personality refers to a way of being centered on perfectionism and rigidity in cognitive reasoning from which the individual cannot escape; as well as a functioning based on extreme order, frequent doubts and a significant slowness in carrying out any task (Rojas, 2001).
Following the findings that behavioral psychology and cognitive psychology have been able to make in recent decades in the experimental setting, obsessive-compulsive individuals They seem to have the following common features: a great anxiety interference that makes it difficult for them to conclude an action that has already been started and a type of distortion at a cognitive level based on dichotomous thoughts (from which they categorize ideas in an absolutist, extremist and without nuances, “all or nothing” way. ).
This behavior leads them to have little tolerance for assuming their own and others’ mistakes, as well as generating a large volume of obligations and strict rules about how things (and the people around them) should be in general. But this is just a sample of to what extent obsessive-compulsive personality has its own characteristics Let’s see what they are.
Obsessive-compulsive personalities They tend to direct the focus of their attention to very specific and delimited areas of interest, showing little creative thinking ability and severe difficulties in functioning in unstructured situations, such as those of a social nature. They are characterized by having high fears of making mistakes or not knowing how to act, which is why they show great interest and relevance towards insignificant details.
The DSM-V (APA, 2014) defines obsessive-compulsive personality disorder as a pervasive pattern of preoccupation with prayer, perfectionism, and mental control, at the expense of flexibility, openness and efficiency, which begins in the early stages of adult life and is present in various personal contexts. This profile is characterized by the presence of at least four of the following aspects:
Development of obsessive-compulsive behavior
The causal origin of obsessive-compulsive personality also seems to be explained, as in a large part of the constructs in the field of psychology, by the interaction between the hereditary component and the nature of the environment where the individual develops.
Thus, many studies corroborate how the presence of A certain hereditary burden in the subject is what predisposes him to this particular way of being, to which is added the environmental factor, which is defined above all by highly rigid and regulatory contexts. More specifically, research carried out with samples of homozygous and dizygotic twin subjects indicate a significantly higher percentage of obsessive-compulsive symptomatology in the first group, with 57 and 22% respectively (van Grootheest et al., 2005).
On the other hand, in a 2011 meta-analysis study, Taylor and his team found that between 37 and 41% of the variance in obsessive-compulsive symptomatology was explained by additive hereditary factors, while non-shared environmental variables would explain 50%. -52% of the variance. Thus, the etiological hypothesis suggests that it is the interaction of both factors that causes this type of psychopathological manifestations.
Salkovsky’s model
One of the authors who has made the most contributions to the study and nature of the construct of obsession-compulsion is Paul Salkovskis, who proposed one of the reference explanatory models on the origin and maintenance of OCD in 1985, which has been reformulated and completed based on more recent research.
Such a model clearly shows how the interaction between exposure to early environmental experiences increases the individual’s internal predisposition to develop this type of personal profile. Thus, the individual generates a system of thought and global and internal beliefs about the sense of personal responsibility and moral values, and a high activation of attention towards potentially aversive stimuli, mainly.
These beliefs are finally externalized in the form of obsessive ideas due to the presence of external triggering stimuli, both internal (such as memories) and external (for example, listening to a news story on the radio).
This combination of elements gives rise to the implementation of two new phenomena: firstly, an increase in attention to such triggering stimulus and the frequency of execution of behavioral actions to alleviate the worry and discomfort generated by the obsessive idea. (such as compulsive rituals or avoidance and/or reassurance behaviors) and, secondly, a feedback of the interpretation and distorted cognitive reasoning by which such obsessive ideas are given a very high relevance.
Finally, all of this results in increased emotional distress, guilt, irritation, anxiety, worry or sadness This consequence will serve as a basis to reinforce the initial belief system and further enhance the subject’s attentional activation, causing a greater occurrence of future obsessive ideas when a new trigger stimulus appears. In short, the person is trapped in a maladaptive circle where, far from removing discomfort, they manage to feed it and increase it due to the value of truthfulness that the person gives to obsession and also to compulsion as a phenomenon that relieves discomfort.
Cognitive deficits
Some studies, such as Shin’s meta-analysis in 2014, have observed a series of deficits in cognitive processes in people with obsessive-compulsive functioning, especially in the capacity for visuospatial memory when faced with complex tasks or stimuli, in executive functions, in verbal memory. or in verbal fluency.
From these findings it has been concluded that people with OCD profile show significant difficulties in the organization and integration of the information received from one’s own experiences. That is to say, it seems that the subject has a “lack of confidence” in his memory, which is the cause and consequence of the repetitive execution of the checks.
Salkovskis et al. (2016) corroborate what was defended by the previous author, adding in a recent study that they can also be attributed a lack of confidence in the result of their decisions, which motivates verification, which is linked to a deficit in memory. explicit to remember threatening stimuli.
In Rojas (2001) a series of elements are exposed that are incorporated during the development of the obsessive-compulsive personality in the individual, motivating the acquisition of such a cognitive and behavioral profile in a global and permanent manner:
1. A rigid child development environment with many inflexible rules
These can cause the learning of excessively meticulous behavior and a dogmatic belief system about responsibility a dynamic of frequent worry about potential experiences of danger or harm and a great implication in the negative interpretation given to intrusive thoughts in general.
2. A temperament prone to introversion with poor communication skills and significant ruminative capacity
This causes them to develop behavioral patterns that are not very interactive and tend toward social isolation.
3. A restricted and limited affectivity
They present the belief of needing to control and take excessive care of the way you relate to the environment, these interactions being unnatural and spontaneous. They understand interpersonal relationships hierarchically, conceptualizing them in categories of inferiority or superiority, instead of seeing them as symmetrical or equal.
4. The individual’s obsessive thinking motivates obsessive behavior
Illogical, absurd, irrational obsessive ideas are central, despite the fact that the person tries unsuccessfully to fight against them, since they are able to notice the meaninglessness they entail. These thoughts They are characterized by being frequent, intense, long-lasting and disturbing and generate great emotional discomfort.
5. An external and unstable locus of control
From this the person concludes that their own actions have no implication in the events that occurred, these being the result of chance, the decisions of others or destiny. Thus, superstition becomes the method of interpreting the situational signals to which the individual is exposed, leading him to perform a behavioral ritual (the compulsion) that serves as relief from such anxiety-inducing discomfort.
Therefore, they are constantly searching for these anticipatory signals that keep them tense, alert and hypervigilant with the aim of “preparing” for what may happen to them.
All of this causes an increase and feedback of anxiety, which becomes the phenomenon underlying this type of personality profile. Finally, in constantly imagining potential fearful, dangerous or harmful situations, the tolerance for the uncertainty they present is extremely low.
