Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

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...

Personality Disorders: Dependent and Obsessive-Compulsive

Personality Disorders: Dependent and Obsessive-Compulsive

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.
Dependent Personality Disorder
Dependent personality disorder is characterized by an excessive reliance on others to manage various aspects of life. Individuals with this disorder often struggle...

Anxiety: Overview

Anxiety: Overview

Anxiety is a common mental disorder featuring excessive worry, fear, and apprehension, significantly affecting daily life. People with anxiety disorders experience persistent and intense anxiety, interrupting their everyday functioning.
Individuals with anxiety often experience a range of physical and emotional symptoms, including sweating, trembling, tachycardia, and disturbances in sleep patterns. These symptoms vary in intensity and frequency but are generally disruptive and distressing.

Personality Disorders: Narcissistic and Avoidant

Personality Disorders: Narcissistic and Avoidant

Narcissistic and avoidant personality traits represent two contrasting patterns of behavior that significantly influence social interactions and self-perception. While individuals with narcissistic disorder seek admiration and validation, individuals with avoidant personality disorder withdraw due to fear of judgment.
Characteristics of Narcissistic Personality Disorder
Narcissistic individuals exhibit an inflated sense of self-importance and an excessive need for admiration. They are often...

Self-Discrepancy Theory

Self-Discrepancy Theory

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.

Preparedness and Phobias

Preparedness and Phobias

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...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

The experience of young carers in Australia: a qualitative systematic review and meta-ethnographic synthesis.

Australian journal of psychology·2025

Same author

Feared Self, Inferential Confusion, and Magical Ideation in Obsessive Compulsive Phenomena.

Clinical psychology & psychotherapy·2025

Same author

Development of a short and an ultra-brief version of the Saving Inventory-revised (SI-R) for assessing hoarding severity: The SI-R9 and the SI-R3.

Journal of psychiatric research·2025

Same author

Feared self and morality in obsessive-compulsive phenomena.

The British journal of clinical psychology·2024

Same author

Evaluation of a youth-focused suicide prevention HOPE aftercare service: protocol for a non-randomized hybrid effectiveness-implementation type I design.

BMC health services research·2024

Same author

The role of feared possible selves in the relationship between inferential confusion and obsessive-compulsive symptoms: A replication and extension in a clinical sample.

The British journal of clinical psychology·2024

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Apr 29, 2026

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

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

Published on: March 14, 2025

Feared self and responsibility in obsessive compulsive phenomena.

Yoon-Hee Yang¹, Tess Jaeger², Richard Moulding³

¹School of Psychology, Deakin University, Burwood, Victoria, Australia.

The British Journal of Clinical Psychology

|April 28, 2026

Summary

Feared self significantly increases discomfort in obsessive-compulsive tendencies, while responsibility manipulation had no effect. Understanding feared self is crucial for cognitive models of obsessive-compulsive phenomena.

Keywords:

feared self inflated sense of responsibility obsessive compulsive disorder

More Related Videos

Protocol for Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation with Symptom Provocation to Treat Obsessive-compulsive Disorder

Protocol for Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation with Symptom Provocation to Treat Obsessive-compulsive Disorder

Published on: November 25, 2025

Signal Attenuation as a Rat Model of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Signal Attenuation as a Rat Model of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Published on: January 9, 2015

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Apr 29, 2026

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

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

Published on: March 14, 2025

Protocol for Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation with Symptom Provocation to Treat Obsessive-compulsive Disorder

Protocol for Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation with Symptom Provocation to Treat Obsessive-compulsive Disorder

Published on: November 25, 2025

Signal Attenuation as a Rat Model of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Signal Attenuation as a Rat Model of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Published on: January 9, 2015

Area of Science:

Psychology
Clinical Psychology
Cognitive Science

Background:

Obsessive-compulsive tendencies (OCD) are often associated with maladaptive cognitive processes.
Feared self and inflated responsibility are proposed cognitive factors in OCD.

Purpose of the Study:

To experimentally investigate the roles of feared self and inflated responsibility in obsessive-compulsive tendencies.
To examine the impact of these factors on discomfort and checking behaviors.

Main Methods:

An online experiment with 185 participants randomly assigned to responsibility (heightened vs. control) and feared self (morality, culpability, or neutral) conditions.
Participants completed vignette tasks, and outcome measures included discomfort ratings and response times, serving as a behavioral measure of checking.

Main Results:

Responsibility manipulation did not significantly affect outcome variables.
Participants' existing level of feared self and the feared-self manipulation significantly increased discomfort levels.

Conclusions:

Feared self plays a fundamental cognitive-affective role in obsessive-compulsive tendencies.
Integrating feared-self processes into cognitive models is important for understanding discomfort in OCD.