How is the obsessive-compulsive personality profile created?

Originally, the terms "obsession" and "compulsion" were defined in Latin as "being surrounded, besieged, blocked" and "being forced to do something you don't want to", respectively.

In a more current way, the description that is applied in psychology about the obsessive personality refers to a way of being focused on perfectionism and rigidity in cognitive reasoning from which the individual cannot escape; as well as a functioning based on extreme order, frequent doubts and a significant slowness in carrying out any task (Rojas, 2001).

Following the findings that behavioral psychology and cognitive psychology have been able to carry out in recent decades in the experimental field, obsessive-compulsive individuals seem to have the following common features: a great anxious interference that makes it difficult for them to conclude an action already initiated and a type of distortion at the cognitive level based on thoughts of a dichotomous type (from which they categorize ideas in an absolutist, extremist and unqualified way, of "all or nothing").

This operation leads them to have a low tolerance to assume their own and others' errors, as well as to generate a large volume of obligations and strict rules about how things (and the people around them) should be in general. But this is just a sample of to what extent the obsessive-compulsive personality has its own characteristics. Let's see what they are.

• Related article: "Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): what is it and how does it manifest?"

The nature of the obsessive-compulsive personality

Obsessive-compulsive personalities they tend to direct the focus of their attention to very specific and delimited areas of interest, showing little creative thinking ability and severe difficulties in coping in unstructured situations, such as those of a social nature. They are characterized by having high fears of being wrong or not knowing how to act, so they show great interest and relevance towards insignificant details.

The DSM-V (APA, 2014) defines obsessive-compulsive personality disorder as a pervasive pattern of preoccupation with prayer, perfectionism, and mind control, at the expense of flexibility, openness and efficiency, which begins in the early stages of adult life and is present in various personal contexts. This profile is characterized by the presence of at least four of the following aspects:

• Preoccupation with details, order or lists.
• Perfectionism that prevents completion of tasks.
• Excessive dedication to work or performing tasks to the detriment of dedication to leisure time and interpersonal relationships.
• Scrupulous general operation, conscious and inflexible in excess in ethical and moral values.
• Difficulty getting rid of useless objects.
• Unwilling to delegate.
• Miser towards himself and towards others.
• Rigid and stubborn performance.

Development of obsessive-compulsive behavior

The causal origin of the obsessive-compulsive personality also seems to be explained, as in most of the constructs in the field of psychology, by the interaction between the hereditary component and the nature of the environment where the individual.

Thus, many studies corroborate how the presence of A certain hereditary burden on the subject is what predisposes him to this way of being determined, to which is added the environmental factor, which is defined above all by highly rigid and normative contexts. More specifically, investigations carried out with samples of homozygous and dizygotic twins indicate a percentage significantly higher obsessive-compulsive symptoms in the first group, with 57 and 22% respectively (van Grootheest et al., 2005).

On the other hand, in a 2011 meta-analysis study, Taylor and his team found that between 37% and 41% of the variance of symptoms Obsessive-compulsive was explained by additive hereditary factors, while non-shared environmental variables would explain 50-52% of the variance. Thus, the etiological hypothesis suggests that it is the interaction of both factors that causes this type of psychopathological manifestations.

• You may be interested: "Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder: What is it?"

The Salkovskis model

One of the authors who has made the most contributions to the study and nature of the obsession-compulsion construct is Paul Salkovskis, who proposed one of the explanatory reference models on the origin and maintenance of TOC in 1985, which has been reformulated and completed based on more recent research.

Such a model clearly exposes how the interaction between exposure to environmental experiences early increase the internal predisposition of the individual to develop this type of profile personal. Thus, the individual is generating a system of thought and global and internal beliefs about the meaning of the personal responsibility and moral values, and a high activation of attention towards potentially aversive stimuli, mainly.

These beliefs are finally externalized in the form of obsessive ideas due to the presence of external triggering stimuli, both internal (such as memories) and external (for example, listening to a news item on the radio).

This combination of elements gives rise to the setting in motion of two new phenomena: first, an increase in attention to such a triggering stimulus and in the frequency of performing behavioral actions to alleviate worry and discomfort generated by the obsessive idea (such as compulsive rituals or avoidance behaviors and / or reassurance) and, secondly, a feedback from the interpretation and distorted cognitive reasoning by which a very high relevance is given to such obsessive ideas.

Finally, all of it leads to increased emotional distress, guilt, irritation, anxiety, worry, or sadness. This consequence will serve as a basis to reinforce the initial belief system and further enhance activation. attention of the subject, causing a greater occurrence of future obsessive ideas before the appearance of a new stimulus trigger. In short, the person is trapped in a maladaptive circle where, far from removing the discomfort, he manages to feed it and increase it by the value of truthfulness that the person gives to the obsession and also to the compulsion as a discomfort.

Cognitive deficits

Some studies such as Shin's 2014 meta-analysis have observed a series of deficits in cognitive processes in people with functioning obsessive-compulsive, especially in visuospatial memory capacity in the face of complex tasks or stimuli, in executive functions, in verbal memory or in verbal fluency.

Based on these findings, it has been concluded that people with an OCD profile show significant difficulties in organizing and integrating the information received from own experiences. In other words, it seems that the subject has a "lack of confidence" in his memory, which is the cause and consequence of the repetitive execution of the checks.

Salkovskis et al. (2016) corroborate what was defended by the previous author, adding in a recent study that they can also be attributed a lack of confidence in the result of their decisions, which motivates the verification, which is linked to a deficit in explicit memory to remember stimuli threatening.

Factors that contribute to its development

In Rojas (2001) a series of elements are exposed that are incorporated during the development of the personality obsessive-compulsive in the individual, motivating the acquisition of such a cognitive and behavioral profile globally and permanent:

1. A rigid child development environment with many inflexible rules

These can lead to the learning of excessive meticulous behavior and a dogmatic belief system about responsibility, a dynamic of frequent concern in the face of potential experiences of danger or harm and a great implication in the negative interpretation given to intrusive thoughts in general.

2. An introverted temperament with poor communicative ability and significant ruminative ability

This makes them develop non-interactive behavior patterns that tend to social isolation.

3. A restricted and limited affectivity

They present the belief of need to control and take too much care of the way of relating to the environment, these interactions being unnatural and spontaneous. They understand interpersonal relationships in a hierarchical way, conceptualizing them in categories of inferiority or superiority, instead of seeing them as symmetrical or equal.

4. The obsessive thinking of the individual motivates the obsessive behavior

Obsessive illogical, absurd, irrational ideas are central, despite the fact that the person tries unsuccessfully to fight them, since he is able to notice the nonsense they carry. Such thoughts are characterized by being frequent, intense, long-lasting and disruptive and they generate great emotional distress.

5. An external and unstable locus of control

From this, the person concludes that his own actions have no implication in the events that occurred, these being the result of chance, the decisions of others or fate. Thus, superstition becomes the method of interpreting the situational signals to which the individual is exposed, leading him to perform a behavioral ritual (the compulsion) that serves as relief from such anxious discomfort.

For this reason, they are in constant search of these anticipatory signals that keep them in tension, alert and hypervigilance in order to "prepare" for what may happen to them.

All of it causes an increase and feedback of anxiety, which becomes the underlying phenomenon of this type of personality profile. Finally, in constant imagination of potentially fearful, dangerous or harmful situations, tolerance for the uncertainty they present is extremely low.

Bibliographic references:

• American Psychiatric Association., Kupfer, D. J., Regier, D. A., Arango López, C., Ayuso-Mateos, J. L., Vieta Pascual, E., & Bagney Lifante, A. (2014). DSM-5: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.). Madrid [etc.]: Editorial Médica Panamericana.
• Bados, A. (2015). Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: nature, evaluation and treatment. In Dipòsit Digital of the University of Barcelona. http://hdl.handle.net/2445/65644.
• Rojas, E. (2001). Who are you? From personality to self-esteem (4th ed.). Spain: Today's Issues.