Feared self and morality in obsessive-compulsive phenomena

Recent studies have shown that individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) tend to endorse a feared self that they perceive to be immoral, insane and/or dangerous. The current study investigated the relationship between morality-related feared self, self-relevance and OC-related cognitions and behaviours such as moral deliberation, threat interpretation bias, discomfort, urge to act and likelihood of acting in OC-relevant situations in a non-clinical sample.

A total of 78 participants (27 female, M_age = 29.85, SD = 9.8) underwent a priming study. Participants had their feared-self primed firstly via an unscrambling task in either a feared self or neutral condition and secondly via a writing task about moral transgressions. The response time for these tasks was recorded as a measurement of moral deliberation. Further, self-relevance was primed by having half of the participants' complete tasks that referenced their actions, whereas half of the participants completed tasks that referenced others' actions.

It was found that participants' pre-existing level of feared self was linked to threat interpretation bias, discomfort and urge to act in OC-relevant situations. A primed sense of feared self and self-relevance also demonstrated significant links to changes in OC-relevant symptoms.

These results indicate that environmental cues related to morality may lead to OC-related symptoms.