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Method

Guy Doron

Participants

The study included 30 participants with OCD (18 female, M age=37.6 years, SD=13.4, range 20-65; M level of formal education=14.3 years, SD=3.33; 14 in a defacto relationship/married). OCD subgroups determined according to the most severe symptoms were as follows: checkers (n=17), contamination (n=9) and harm obsessions (n=4). Twenty participants with other anxiety disorders were in the anxiety disorder group (AD; 14 females; M age=41.0, SD=14.6; range 19-65; M level of formal education=13.6 years, SD=2.34; 12 in a defacto relationship/married3). In the AD group, four had social anxiety disorder as the primary disorder, six had generalized anxiety disorder, eight had panic disorder and two had multiple specific phobias.

Participants were recruited via psychology clinics, consumer groups, and advertisements in the local paper. Diagnoses were confirmed using a semi-structured interview (ADIS-IV, Brown, DiNardo, & Barlow, 1994) administered by registered psychologists or supervised doctoral level students who had received prior training in ADIS administration. For the clinical groups entry criteria for inclusion in the study were: (a) a primary diagnosis of OCD (OCD group) or other anxiety disorder (AD group), (b) no current substance abuse, and (c) no current or past schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or organic mental disorder.

In the community control group there were 32 participants (22 females; M age=36.4, SD=10.7; range 23-60; M level of formal education=16.4 years, SD=3.71). Participants in this non-clinical group were recruited from several sites (hospital staff, university students, working population) in order to ensure a representative sample. Non-clinical participants were excluded if they disclosed a current psychiatric disorder or drug abuse or current psychiatric treatment on several screening questions.

Analyses of variance (ANOVA) revealed a significant overall difference in educational level (F (2, 80)= 5.66, p<0.01) between the groups. Individual comparisons with Bonferroni correction revealed the community group had more years of formal education than the anxiety disorder group, but no significant difference in education was found between the OCD group and the two other groups. No significant differences were found for age, F(2,79)=.79, pp<.05, or gender, Χ²(2)=.73, p>.05. No significant differences were found in marital rates between the OCD and AD groups, Χ²(2)=1.02, p>.05.

Measures

Experience of Close Relationships (ECR; Brennan, Clark & Shaver, 1998; for detailed description see Chapter 6 of this thesis). In the present study, Cronbach's ╬▒ was .90 for the Anxiety subscale and .91 for the Avoidance subscale.

The Padua Inventory - Revised (PI-R, Burns et al., 1996; see chapter 4 for detailed description). In the present study, Cronbach's ╬▒ was 0.94.

The revised Obsessional Beliefs Questionnaire (OBQ, OCCWG, 2005; see chapter 4 for detailed description). In the present study, Cronbach's ╬▒ was 0.97.

The World Assumption Scale (WAS; Janoff-Bulman, 1991; see chapter 4 for detailed description). All subscales except Randomness showed acceptable Cronbach's ╬▒ ranging from 0.70-0.84.

The Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II Beck et al., 1996; for more detailed description see Chapter 4 of this thesis). In the present study, Cronbach's ╬▒ was 0.95.

The Adult Self Perception Profile (ASPP; Messer & Harter, 1986) is an identical measure to the Student Perception Profile (see chapter 5 of this thesis), however, this self-report measure is intended for individuals aged 18 and above. This measure taps into eleven domain-specific self-concept dimensions as well as into global self-worth. For each of the domains, parallel items were constructed (following Neemann & Harter, 1986) that tap importance/success in each domain. Three of the eleven scales were administered for this study; morality, job competence, and social acceptability. These subscales were selected due to their hypothesized relationship to OCD.

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