• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: Affective forecasting accuracy in obsessive compulsive disorder
  • Contributor: Hezel, Dianne M.; Stewart, S. Evelyn; Riemann, Bradley C.; McNally, Richard J.
  • Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP), 2019
  • Published in: Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 47 (2019) 5, Seite 573-584
  • Language: English
  • DOI: 10.1017/s1352465819000134
  • ISSN: 1352-4658; 1469-1833
  • Origination:
  • Footnote:
  • Description: <jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:sec id="S1352465819000134_as1"><jats:title>Background:</jats:title><jats:p>Research indicates that people suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) possess several cognitive biases, including a tendency to over-estimate threat and avoid risk. Studies have suggested that people with OCD not only over-estimate the severity of negative events, but also under-estimate their ability to cope with such occurrences. What is less clear is if they also miscalculate the extent to which they will be emotionally impacted by a given experience.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec id="S1352465819000134_as2"><jats:title>Aims:</jats:title><jats:p>The aim of the current study was twofold. First, we examined if people with OCD are especially poor at predicting their emotional responses to future events (i.e.<jats:italic>affective forecasting</jats:italic>). Second, we analysed the relationship between affective forecasting accuracy and risk assessment across a broad domain of behaviours.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec id="S1352465819000134_as3"><jats:title>Method:</jats:title><jats:p>Forty-one OCD, 42 non-anxious, and 40 socially anxious subjects completed an affective forecasting task and a self-report measure of risk-taking.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec id="S1352465819000134_as4"><jats:title>Results:</jats:title><jats:p>Findings revealed that affective forecasting accuracy did not differ among the groups. In addition, there was little evidence that affective forecasting errors are related to how people assess risk in a variety of situations.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec id="S1352465819000134_as5"><jats:title>Conclusions:</jats:title><jats:p>The results of our study suggest that affective forecasting is unlikely to contribute to the phenomenology of OCD or social anxiety disorder. However, that people over-estimate the hedonic impact of negative events might have interesting implications for the treatment of OCD and other disorders treated with exposure therapy.</jats:p></jats:sec>