A Comparison of Obsessive–Compulsive Personality Disorder Scales

Abstract

The current study utilized a large undergraduate sample (n = 536), oversampled for DSM-IV-TR obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) pathology, to compare eight self-report measures of OCPD. No prior study has compared more than three measures and the results indicated that the scales had only moderate convergent validity. We also went beyond the existing literature to compare these scales to two external reference points: Their relationships with a well established measure of the five-factor model of personality (FFM) and clinicians' ratings of their coverage of the DSM-IV-TR criterion set. When the FFM was used as a point of comparison the results suggested important differences among the measures with respect to their divergent representation of conscientiousness, neuroticism, and agreeableness. Additionally, an analysis of the construct coverage indicated that the measures also varied in terms of their representation of particular diagnostic criteria. For example, while some scales contained items distributed across the diagnostic criteria, others were concentrated more heavily on particular features of the DSM-IV-TR disorder.

Absorbed in the task: Personality measures predict engagement during task performance as tracked by error negativity and asymmetrical frontal activity

“…The present results may explain these associations, since constraint, absorption, and persistence have been reported to be increased in internalizing disorders (e.g., Elovainio et al, 2004;Halvorsen et al, 2009;Marchesi, Ampollini, DePanfilis, & Maggini, 2008) and decreased in externalizing disorders (e.g., Carlson, Booth, Shin, & Canu, 2002;Cukrowicz, Taylor, Schatschneider, & Iacono, 2006;Roberts, Jackson, Burger, & Trautwein, 2009). For instance, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder has been defined as extreme constraint or conscientiousness, and both the disorder and constraint are associated with high perfectionism and fear of uncertainty (Samuel & Widiger, 2010). In contrast, externalizing psychopathology has been argued to strongly overlap with low constraint (Roberts et al, 2009).…”

Migration Load, Ecological Opportunity, and Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder Etiology: Obsessive Character as an Adaptation to Seasonality

“…Compulsive Conscientiousness Conscientiousness, diagnostically represented by DSM-V criterion 3 (is excessively devoted to work and productivity), was present from Freud's initial description (Freud 1908(Freud / 1959Gay 1989) and is increasingly emphasized by contemporary trait investigations (Samuel and Widiger 2010;Widiger et al 2002;Morey et al 2003;Deary et al 1998). …”

“…In addition, an obsessive character is negatively correlated with the excitement seeking facet of extraversion (Lynam and Widiger 2001). Finally, obsessives are commonly understood to be low in agreeableness (Samuel and Widiger 2010) with volatility (VillemarettePittman et al 2004), niggardliness (Gay 1989), and reactance (Shapiro 1999) translating into high antagonism (Furnham and Crump 2005), low trust, and low compliance (Widiger and Costa 1994).…”

The Biology of Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder Symptomatology: Identifying an Extremely K-Selected Life History Variant

“…When parsing conscientiousness into its six facets, one finds obsessive personality related to them all (Hertler 2013). Thus, conscientiousness is understood as a hallmark of obsessive presentation (Hertler 2013;Deary et al 1998;Morey et al 2003;Samuel and Widiger 2010), leading trait theorists (Widiger et al 2002;page 97) to describe OCPD as primarily a disorder of excessive Conscientiousness.…”

“…On factor analytic trait studies (Fossati et al 2006), and within critical reviews (Hummelen et al 2008), DSM criterion three (is excessively devoted to work) and criterion four (is over conscientious) are always included among the most efficient and powerful diagnostic markers of OCPD. Moreover, Samuel and Widiger (2010) find aspects of conscientiousness evident among most of the remaining six of the American Psychiatric Association (2000; 2013) diagnostic criteria, while Morey et al (2003) understand conscientiousness to uniquely characterize OCPD (Hertler 2013). The reverse is also true.…”