Scrupulosity as a Form of OCD

Moral Thought ◽

Distinctive Features ◽

Penn Inventory ◽

Scrupulosity is closely connected to OCD, despite some appearances and informal characterizations of Scrupulosity as a concern with sin. Those with Scrupulosity have obsessions and/or compulsions. The Penn Inventory of Scrupulosity-Revised (PIOS-R) captures the religious features of Scrupulosity. A secular presentation is less common or has been diagnosed less often, but a non-religious presentation is still possible. The distinctive features of Scrupulosity are perfectionism, chronic doubt and intolerance of uncertainty, and moral thought-action fusion. None of these features are exclusive to Scrupulosity, but they mutually reinforce each other and together characterize the condition.

Scrupulosity, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and Ritual

Hearing Voices and Other Matters of the Mind ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190091149.003.0004 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 103-156

Author(s):

Robert N. McCauley ◽

George Graham

Keyword(s):

General Population ◽

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder ◽

Cognitive Resources ◽

Obsessive Compulsive ◽

Moral Thought ◽

Compulsive Disorder ◽

Religious Rituals ◽

Scrupulosity is a form of OCD involving hyperconscientiousness about moral and religious obligations. Scrupulous individuals accord their thoughts great moral and causal significance. They agonize about their inability to control problematic, intrusive, obsessive thoughts, especially about hazards. Thoughts about hazards are not dysfunctional. They arise in the general population at reproductively significant stages in life. The inability to control such thoughts, however, is dysfunctional. The scrupulous compulsively perform rituals and pursue reassurance, which are always undone by their intolerance of uncertainty and the impossibility of definitively establishing the absence of dangers empirically. The “Protestant order of salvation” is but one example of how religions can domesticate scrupulosity. Some religions’ doctrines about moral thought-action fusion and all religious rituals constitute representations and forms of behavior that temporarily evoke strikingly similar obsessions and compulsions in normal religious participants that deplete their cognitive resources, rendering them susceptible to the imposition of conventional interpretations.

Lutheran clergy members' responses to scrupulosity: The effects of moral thought–action fusion and liberal vs. conservative denomination

Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders ◽

10.1016/j.jocrd.2012.12.003 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

pp. 71-77 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Brett J. Deacon ◽

Amanda M. Vincent ◽

Annie R. Zhang

Keyword(s):

Moral Thought ◽

Aversive Reactivity: A Transdiagnostic Functional Bridge Between Neuroticism and Avoidant Behavioral Coping

10.31219/osf.io/dmtxu ◽

2022 ◽

Author(s):

Stephen Semcho ◽

Matthew W. Southward ◽

Nicole Stumpp ◽

Destiney MacLean ◽

Caitlyn O. Hood ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Negative Affect ◽

Anxiety Sensitivity ◽

Experiential Avoidance ◽

Future Research ◽

Negative Urgency ◽

Coping Behaviors ◽

Distress Intolerance ◽

Thought Action Fusion ◽

Clinically Relevant Behaviors

Aversive reactivity to negative affect has been described as a transdiagnostic mechanism that links distal temperamental vulnerabilities to clinically relevant behaviors. However, the abundance of constructs reflecting aversive reactivity has resulted in a proliferation of models that may ultimately be redundant. We performed a circumscribed review of studies measuring associations between six constructs – anxiety sensitivity, experiential avoidance, distress intolerance, intolerance of uncertainty, thought-action fusion, and negative urgency – and ten relevant coping behaviors. Results suggested that most constructs were measured in relation to a limited number of coping behaviors. Additionally, constructs were most often measured in isolation, rather than with similar constructs. Implications and suggestions for future research and treatment are discussed.

Dysfunctional beliefs as mediators between illness-related intrusive thoughts and health anxiety symptoms

Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy ◽

10.1017/s1352465819000535 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 48 (3) ◽

pp. 315-326 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sandra Arnáez ◽

Gemma García-Soriano ◽

Jose López-Santiago ◽

Amparo Belloch

Keyword(s):

Mediation Analysis ◽

Health Anxiety ◽

Intrusive Thoughts ◽

Anxiety Symptoms ◽

Clinical Implications ◽

Dysfunctional Beliefs ◽

Cognitive Behavioural ◽

The Relationship ◽

AbstractBackground:Cognitive behavioural models of hypochondriasis assume that dysfunctional illness-related beliefs are involved in the genesis and maintenance of the disorder. The role that other more general dysfunctional beliefs about thoughts play in this disorder has also been highlighted. Internal triggers such as illness-related intrusive thoughts could activate these beliefs.Aim:The present paper examines whether general dysfunctional beliefs about distressing thoughts, such as intolerance of uncertainty, over-estimation of threat, and thought-action fusion-likelihood, mediate between illness-related intrusive thoughts and health anxiety symptoms.Method:A group of participants composed of individuals with hypochondriasis (n = 31; 51.5% women; mean age = 32.74 years, SD = 9.96) and community individuals (n = 219; 54.3% women; mean age = 39.56 years, SD = 15.20) completed a series of questionnaires to assess illness-related intrusive thoughts (INPIE), dysfunctional beliefs about thoughts (OBSI-R), and health anxiety symptoms (SHAI).Results:Results from a multiple parallel mediation analysis indicate that over-estimation of threat partially mediated the relationship between illness-related intrusive thoughts and health anxiety symptoms.Conclusions:The results support the importance of the tendency to over-estimate the threat in the relationship between intrusive thoughts related to illness contents and health anxiety. Conceptual and clinical implications of these results are discussed.

Experimental manipulation of beliefs about the importance of thoughts and the effect on an aggressive impulse

Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy ◽

10.1017/s1352465820000120 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 48 (5) ◽

pp. 626-630

Author(s):

A. Jiménez-Ros ◽

L. Faísca ◽

T. Martins ◽

L. Janeiro ◽

A.T. Martins

Keyword(s):

Experimental Manipulation ◽

Self Report ◽

Obsessive Beliefs ◽

Obsessive Compulsive ◽

Moral Thought ◽

Thought Control ◽

Compulsive Disorder ◽

Induced Changes ◽

Maladaptive Beliefs ◽

AbstractBackground:Cognitive models of obsessive-compulsive disorder attribute a causal role to maladaptive beliefs.Aims:To test this hypothesis, we manipulated Overimportance of Thoughts (OT) beliefs and experimentally evaluated their effect on the response to an induced aggressive impulse.Method:Eighty-five participants completed a battery of self-report instruments assessing obsession symptoms, thought control, affectivity and obsessive beliefs, and were then randomly assigned to two conditions. In the experimental condition participants read a scientific abstract on the importance of thought control whilst those in the control condition read a neutral abstract. All participants identified a loved person and imagined feeling the impulse to stab this person, then completed again OT beliefs measures (Overimportance of Thought, Moral-Thought Action Fusion and Thought Action Fusion Likelihood).Results:The Moral component of the Thought Action Fusion was reduced by reading a brief text about the possibility and desirability of thought control. However, experimentally induced changes in beliefs did not yield differences in the intrusiveness of the aggressive impulse.Conclusions:Some beliefs can be modified through a single session in which information similar to what could be obtained in quotidian life is provided.

Biting into the apple: or how religiosity may be linked to moral thought-action fusion through moral vitalism

Mental Health Religion & Culture ◽

10.1080/13674676.2021.1988910 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-12

Author(s):

Robert E. Fite ◽

Lauren N. Forrest ◽

Gregory S. Berlin ◽

J.P. Gonzales ◽

Joshua C. Magee

Keyword(s):

Moral Thought ◽

Religion, moral thought–action fusion, and obsessive–compulsive features in Israeli Muslims and Jews

Mental Health Religion & Culture ◽

10.1080/13674676.2017.1323855 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 20 (7) ◽

pp. 696-707

Author(s):

Jedidiah Siev ◽

Amitai Abramovitch ◽

Gal Ogen ◽

Avigail Burstein ◽

Asala Halaj ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Obsessive Compulsive ◽

Moral Thought ◽

A Comparison of Checking-related Beliefs in Individuals with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Normal Controls

Behaviour Change ◽

10.1375/bech.19.2.67 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 19 (2) ◽

pp. 67-74 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Sarah M. Overton ◽

Ross G. Menzies

Keyword(s):

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder ◽

Personal Responsibility ◽

Obsessive Compulsive ◽

Compulsive Disorder ◽

Gender And Age ◽

Compulsive Checking ◽

Perceived Danger ◽

Thought Action Fusion ◽

Normal Controls

AbstractThe potential roles of perceived danger, responsibility, thought-action fusion, confidence in memory, intolerance of uncertainty and need to control one's thoughts in mediating compulsive checking were examined. Belief ratings were obtained from 21 individuals with compulsive checking concerns and 21 nonclinical controls about the most prominent checking concern of each individual with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), with controls being yoked to individuals with OCD on the basis of gender and age. If control participants and individuals with OCD have some similar beliefs regarding, for example, locking their front door, then it follows that those beliefs are unlikely to be mediating or driving the disorder. Large and significant differences were found between sufferers of OCD and nonclinical controls on ratings of beliefs concerning the probability and severity of harm, intolerance of uncertainty and the need to control thoughts. However, no differences were found between individuals with OCD checking concerns and nonclinical controls in ratings of beliefs concerning perceived personal responsibility, thought-action fusion (TAF) and confidence in memory. The findings concerning personal responsibility are of particular interest and suggest that perceptions of harm or a negative outcome may be a necessary precursor to perceptions of responsibility and the decision to act.

Clean Hands

10.1093/oso/9780190058692.001.0001 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Jesse S. Summers ◽

Walter Sinnott-Armstrong

Keyword(s):

Moral Virtue ◽

Moral Judgments ◽

Obsessive Compulsive ◽

Moral Thought ◽

Compulsive Disorder ◽

Moral Objection ◽

Moral Standards ◽

Reasons Responsiveness ◽

Religious Devotion ◽

Scrupulosity is a form of OCD that raises philosophical puzzles because of its superficial similarities to morally extreme, non-pathological motivation. Cases of Scrupulosity are first presented, then Scrupulosity is characterized as a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) because of its moral or religious obsessions and/or compulsions and its underlying anxiety. Scrupulosity is specifically characterized by perfectionism, chronic doubt and intolerance of uncertainty, and moral thought-action fusion. It is a mental illness and not simply religious devotion, moral virtue, or strength of character. Scrupulous moral judgments differ from genuine moral judgments because their underlying anxiety leads to systematic distortions and leads those with Scrupulosity to act in a way that primarily soothes their anxiety instead of responding to the morally relevant features of the situation. People with Scrupulosity are likely less accountable for harms they cause, which can be explained by reasons-responsiveness theories of responsibility. There is justification for treating Scrupulosity over moral objection without imposing the therapist’s own moral standards.

Hearing Voices and Other Matters of the Mind

10.1093/oso/9780190091149.001.0001 ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Robert N. McCauley ◽

George Graham

Keyword(s):

Theory Of Mind ◽

Mental Disorders ◽

Language Processing ◽

Autistic Spectrum Disorder ◽

Religious Thought ◽

Moral Thought ◽

Hearing Voices ◽

The Mind ◽

And Behavior ◽

This book endorses an ecumenical naturalism toward all cognition, which will illuminate the long-recognized and striking similarities between features of mental disorders and features of religions. The authors emphasize underlying cognitive continuities between familiar features of religiosity, of mental disorders, and of everyday thinking and action. They contend that much religious thought and behavior can be explained in terms of the cultural activation of maturationally natural cognitive systems, which address fundamental problems of human survival, encompassing such capacities as hazard precautions, agency detection, language processing, and theory of mind. The associated skills are not taught and appear independent of general intelligence. Religions’ representations cue such systems’ operations. The authors hypothesize that in doing so they sometimes elicit responses that mimic features of cognition and conduct associated with mental disorders. Both in schizophrenia and in religions some people hear alien voices. The inability of depressed participants to communicate with or sense their religions’ powerful, caring gods can exacerbate their depression. Often religions can domesticate the concerns and compulsions of people with OCD. Religions’ rituals and pronouncements about moral thought-action fusion can temporarily evoke similar obsessions and compulsions in the general population. A chapter is devoted to each of these and to the exception that proves the rule. The authors argue that if autistic spectrum disorder involves theory-of mind-deficits, then people with ASD will lack intuitive insight and find inferences with many religious representations challenging. Ecumenical naturalism’s approach to mental abnormalities and religiosity promises both explanatory and therapeutic understanding.