How is the obsessive-compulsive personality profile created?

A personality type strongly based on perfectionism and scrupulousness.

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

More currently, the description applied in psychology to the obsessive personality refers to a way of being centered 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 the completion of any task (Rojas, 2001).

Following the findings that behavioral psychology and cognitive psychology have been able to make in the last decades in the experimental setting, obsessive-compulsive individuals seem to present the following common featuresAnxious interference that makes it difficult for them to conclude an action already initiated and a type of cognitive distortion based on dichotomous thinking (from which they categorize ideas in an absolutist, extremist and unqualified "all or nothing" way).

This functioning leads them to have a low tolerance to assume their own and others' mistakes, 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 the extent to which the obsessive-compulsive to what extent the obsessive-compulsive personality has its own characteristics.. Let's see what they are.

The nature of the obsessive-compulsive personality.

The obsessive-compulsive personalities usually focus their attention on very specific and delimited areas of interest, showing little creative thinking abilityThey show little ability for creative thinking and severe difficulties in managing in unstructured situations, such as those of a social nature. They are characterized by high fears of being wrong or not knowing how to act, so they show great interest and relevance to insignificant details.

The DSM-V (APA, 2014) defines obsessive-compulsive personality disorder as. a pervasive pattern of preoccupation with oren, perfectionism and mental controlat the expense of flexibility, openness and efficiency, which begins in early adulthood and is present in a variety of personal contexts. Such a profile is characterized by the presence of at least four of the following aspects:

• Preoccupation with details, order or lists.
• Perfectionism that prevents the completion of tasks..
• Excessive dedication to work or task completion to the detriment of dedication to leisure time and interpersonal relationships.
• Scrupulous general functioningConscientious, conscientious and inflexible in excess in ethical and moral values.
• Difficulty to get rid of useless objects.
• Unwillingness to delegate.
• Greedy towards himself and others.
• Rigid and obstinate functioning.

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 develops.

Thus, many studies corroborate how the presence of a certain hereditary a certain hereditary load in the subject is what predisposes him/her to this particular way of being.The environmental factor, which is defined above all by highly rigid and normative contexts, is added to the environmental factor. More specifically, research conducted with samples of homozygous and dizygous twin subjects indicate a significantly higher percentage of obsessive-compulsive symptomatology in the former 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 37-41% of the variance in obsessive-compulsive symptomatology was explained by additive heritable factors, whereas 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.

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 reference explanatory models on the origin and maintenance of OCD in 1985. in 1985, which has been reformulated and completed on the basis of more recent research.

This model clearly shows how the interaction between exposure to early environmental experiences increases the individual's internal predisposition to develop this type of personal profile. Thus, the individual generates a system of thought and global and internal beliefs about the sense of 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 (e.g., memories) and external (e.g., hearing a news item on the radio).

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

Finally, all this derives in an increase of emotional discomfort, guilt, irritation, anxiety, worry or sadness.. This consequence will serve as a basis for reinforcing the initial belief system and further enhance the subject's attentional activation, causing a greater occurrence of future obsessive ideas when a new triggering stimulus appears. In short, the person finds himself trapped in a maladaptive circle where, far from distancing the discomfort, he manages to feed it and increase it due to the value of veracity that the person gives to the obsession and also to the compulsion as a phenomenon that relieves the discomfort.

Cognitive deficits

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

From these findings it has been concluded that people with OCD profile show significant difficulties in the organization and integration of information received. show significant difficulties in organizing and integrating the information received from their own experiences. from their own experiences. In other words, it seems that the subject presents a "lack of confidence" in his memory, which is both 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 outcome of their decisions, which motivates checking, which is linked to a deficit in explicit memory to remember threatening stimuli.

Factors contributing to their development

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

A rigid child development environment with many inflexible rules 2.

These can lead to the learning of overly meticulous behavior and a dogmatic belief system about a dogmatic belief system about responsibility, a dynamic of frequent preoccupation with experiencesA dynamic of frequent preoccupation with potential experiences of danger or harm and a strong involvement in the negative interpretation of intrusive thoughts in general.

2. An introversion-prone temperament with poor communication skills and significant ruminative ability.

This causes them to develop behavioral patterns that are not very interactive and tend to social isolation.

3. A restricted and limited affectivity

They present the belief of needing to need to control and take too much care of the way they relate to their environment, these interactions being unnatural and spontaneous.These interactions are not very natural 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 individual's obsessive thinking motivates obsessive behavior.

Illogical, absurd, irrational obsessive ideas are central, despite the fact that the person tries unsuccessfully to fight them, since he/she is able to see the meaninglessness they entail. These thoughts are characterized by being frequent, intense, lasting and disturbing, and generate great emotional discomfort. and generate great emotional discomfort.

5. An external and unstable locus of control

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

Therefore, they are in constant search of such anticipatory signals that keep them in tension, alert and hypervigilant in order to "prepare" for what may happen to them.

All of this causes an increase and feedback of anxietywhich becomes the underlying phenomenon of this type of personality profile. Finally, in constant imagination of potential fearful, dangerous or harmful situations, their tolerance to uncertainty is extremely low.

Bibliographic references:

• American Psychiatric Association, Kupfer, D. J., Regier, D. A., Arango Lopez, 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, assessment and treatment. In Dipòsit Digital de la Universitat de Barcelona. http://hdl.handle.net/2445/65644.
• Rojas, E. (2001). who are you? From personality to self-esteem (4th ed.). Spain: Temas de Hoy.