Feared self and morality in obsessive-compulsive phenomena.

Background: Recent studies have shown that individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) tend to endorse a feared self that they perceive to be immoral, insane and/or dangerous. The current study investigated the relationship between morality-related feared self, self-relevance and OC-related cognitions and behaviours such as moral deliberation, threat interpretation bias, discomfort, urge to act and likelihood of acting in OC-relevant situations in a non-clinical sample.

Method: A total of 78 participants (27 female, M_age = 29.85, SD = 9.8) underwent a priming study. Participants had their feared-self primed firstly via an unscrambling task in either a feared self or neutral condition and secondly via a writing task about moral transgressions. The response time for these tasks was recorded as a measurement of moral deliberation. Further, self-relevance was primed by having half of the participants' complete tasks that referenced their actions, whereas half of the participants completed tasks that referenced others' actions.

Results: It was found that participants' pre-existing level of feared self was linked to threat interpretation bias, discomfort and urge to act in OC-relevant situations. A primed sense of feared self and self-relevance also demonstrated significant links to changes in OC-relevant symptoms.

Conclusion: These results indicate that environmental cues related to morality may lead to OC-related symptoms.