The Emotional Schemas and Obsessive-Compulsive Symptom Dimensions in People with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Growing research shows an association between emotional schemas and psychopathology. Therefore, the study of emotional schemas in psychiatric disorders is an important issue regarding psychopathology. Also, emotional processes are important factors in relation to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), but experimentally no study has examined the relations of emotional schemas to obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptom dimensions in people with OCD. The aims of this study were to compare emotional schemas between people with OCD and non-clinical control participants and to investigate the relationships between emotional schemas and OC symptom dimensions in OCD. Eighty individuals with OCD completed the Leahy Emotional Schema Scale (LESS) and measures of clinical characteristics. Results showed that people with OCD had higher scores on the maladaptive emotional schemas of guilt and uncontrollability than non-clinical control group. Non-clinical control participants had higher scores on the adaptive emotional schema of higher values than people with OCD. Guilt significantly predicted the OC symptom dimensions of responsibility for harm and symmetry after controlling for clinical characteristics. Uncontrollability was a significant predictor of the OC dimensions of unacceptable thoughts. These findings indicate that specific dimensions of maladaptive emotional schemas such as guilt and uncontrollability may be associated with some specific OC symptom dimensions in people with OCD. This study provided more evidence for Leahy’s emotional schema model in people with OCD.