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Related Concept Videos

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder01:28

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

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Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental health condition characterized by recurrent obsessions, compulsions, or both, which consume significant time and interfere with daily functioning. Obsessions involve persistent, intrusive, and unwanted thoughts, images, or urges that evoke anxiety. Common examples include irrational fears of contamination or harm. Compulsions are repetitive behaviors or mental acts performed to reduce the anxiety caused by obsessions. For instance, individuals...
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Personality Disorders: Dependent and Obsessive-Compulsive01:24

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Dependent personality disorder and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder are two separate psychological conditions that influence behavior, relationships, and overall life functioning. Though both involve maladaptive behaviors, their core characteristics and motivations differ significantly.
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Human fear responses to certain stimuli, such as darkness, heights, deep water, and blood, can often arise despite the absence of direct negative experiences. This phenomenon is rooted in evolutionary psychology, which posits that humans have developed a predisposition to fear stimuli that historically posed significant survival threats. This predisposition, known as preparedness, suggests that early humans who developed a fear of potentially dangerous entities, such as venomous snakes and...
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One influential perspective on what motivates people's behavior is detailed in Tory Higgin's self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987). He proposed that people hold disagreeing internal representations of themselves that lead to different emotional states.  
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 15, 2025

Exploring the Neural Correlates of Cognitive Reappraisal in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Using Task-based Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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Exploring the Neural Correlates of Cognitive Reappraisal in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Using Task-based Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Published on: March 14, 2025

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Experiential avoidance and obsessive-compulsive symptoms in University students.

Alexandre V Silva1, Renan B de Christo1, Raíza Alves-Pereira2,3

  • 1Universidade Federal da Bahia, Faculdade de Medicina, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.

Neuroscience Applied
|July 14, 2025
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

This study found that college students who avoid distressing internal experiences also tend to have higher obsessive-compulsive symptoms and depression. Understanding this link is key for mental health interventions.

Keywords:
Experiential avoidanceOCDObsessive-compulsive disorder

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Area of Science:

  • Psychology
  • Clinical Psychology
  • Mental Health

Background:

  • Experiential avoidance, the unwillingness to engage with distressing internal experiences, is a key diagnostic dimension.
  • Obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCS) are frequently linked with anxiety and avoidant behaviors.
  • The specific relationship between individual obsessive-compulsive symptom dimensions and experiential avoidance remains under-explored.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the association between dimensions of obsessive-compulsive symptoms and experiential avoidance.
  • To examine these relationships within a sample of undergraduate college students.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized online surveys administered to 390 undergraduate students.
  • Assessed obsessive-compulsive symptoms using the DYBOC-short version.
  • Measured experiential avoidance with the Brief Experiential Avoidance Questionnaire (BEAQ), anxiety with the GAD-7, and depression with PHQ-9.

Main Results:

  • A significant positive correlation was observed between experiential avoidance and overall obsessive-compulsive symptom scores.
  • Experiential avoidance was also significantly correlated with depression scores.
  • These correlations were found within a non-clinical college student sample.

Conclusions:

  • Experiential avoidance is significantly associated with obsessive-compulsive symptom dimensions and depressive symptoms in college students.
  • Findings suggest that experiential avoidance may be a relevant factor in understanding the broader spectrum of obsessive-compulsive disorder and related distress.
  • Further research is warranted to explore the clinical implications of these associations for intervention strategies.