Emotional Functioning in Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder: Comparison to Borderline Personality Disorder and...

Few studies have investigated emotional functioning in obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD). To explore the nature and extent of emotion difficulties in OCPD, the authors examined four domains of self-reported emotional functioning--negative affectivity, anger, emotion regulation, and emotion expressivity--in women with OCPD and compared them to a borderline personality disorder (BPD) group and a healthy control group. Data were collected as part of a larger psychophysiological experimental study on emotion regulation and personality. Compared to healthy controls, participants with OCPD reported significantly higher levels of negative affectivity, trait anger, emotional intensity, and emotion regulation difficulties. Emotion regulation difficulties included lack of emotional clarity, nonacceptance of emotional responses, and limited access to effective emotion regulation strategies. Participants with OCPD scored similarly to participants with BPD on only one variable, namely, problems engaging in goal-directed behavior when upset. Results suggest that OCPD may be characterized by notable difficulties in several emotional domains.