The relationship between obsessive-compulsive symptoms and appraisals of emotional states

A new measure assessing respondents' perceptions of the threat posed by their own emotions (the Perception of Threat from Emotion Questionnaire; the PTEQ) is presented. A range of data relating to the psychometric properties of the PTEQ indicates that it is a reliable measure of people's stable beliefs about their emotions, and is not highly correlated with either mood or measures of responsibility and thought-action fusion. In a student sample, regression analyses indicate that responses to the PTEQ significantly predict responses to a general measure of obsessionality (the Padua Inventory), even when levels of depression and anxiety are controlled for. Moreover, when compared with measures of responsibility and thought-action fusion, the PTEQ emerges as the strongest independent predictor of obsessionality. Of the seven different emotions to which the PTEQ relates, it is found that beliefs about 'anger' are the strongest predictor of obsessionality. Implications of these findings are discussed.