Territoriality and obsessive-compulsive symptoms

We proposed a relationship between territoriality and obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms and derived and tested several hypotheses. We predicted that territoriality could be adequately assessed by a new self-report measure, that a nonspurious and significant relationship exists between territoriality and OC symptoms and disorder, that territoriality would serve as a risk for the future increase of OC symptoms, and that OC disorder (OCD) patients would manifest their territoriality needs by choosing to sit farther from their therapists than non-OCD patients. Results from four studies on nonpatient and patient samples were consistent with our preliminary conceptualization, which deserves continued development and research attention.