Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Question: ExplainObsessive Compulsive Disorder. Answer: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Psychological perspectives Psychological Perspective Key characteristic to describe the perspective Analysis of the perspective to explain the cause of OCD Cognitive Perspective Obsessive thoughts Cognitive perspective is abstracted from cognitive psychology which purely deals with mental processes. Mental processes are things that happening in peoples minds (Tavris Wade, 2008). People have a lot of thoughts. Therefore, cognitive perspective focuses on memory, thinking, problem-solving, language, attention, perception, and decision-making. An individual will obsessively develop thoughts which obviously focus on something. For example, an individual can develop fearful thoughts. In essence, cognitive perspective shows a common characteristic of people with OCD which is an inflated sense of responsibilities over outcomes. Essentially, this involves a distorted pattern of thinking which premises on a belief that to omit something has a likelihood to cause some harm to others or themselves. Also, cognitive approach reveals that the victims of OCD develop over-control, where they seek to control their thoughts, but as they try to gain control over their thoughts and suppress them, their thoughts become preoccupied with the thoughts they have over something. Therefore, the cognitive approaches delve into how people try to suppress their thoughts, which then lead to obsessive thinking and eventually cause fears. Behavioral perspective Behavior exhibited Behavioral perspective is extracted from behavioral psychology. It absolutely deals with learned behavior. The perspective delves into how people learn about a certain behavior and reinforce it (Tavris Wade, 2008). The perspective also sees people or animal as a result of the environment they are interacting from. This would mean that as people interact with their environment there is a high possibility of them learning a behavior. The environmental factors which determine peoples behavior are called stimuli and the observable behavior people exhibit is described as a response. Additionally, people learn from their environment as a result of classical conditioning which entails association; and operant conditioning which occurs as a result of the effects of a certain behavior. For example, double checking of things. A person with this order shall spend much of his time double checking things. For example, after locking the door and going to bed, a person may develop some worries tha t he/she might have not locked the door. The person opts to confirm if it is locked. This behavior repeats itself for quite some time. Therefore, the perspective analyzes how a certain behavior is exhibited and causes anxieties to people. Psychodynamic perspective early childhood experiences, unconscious mind as well as interpersonal relationships Psychodynamic perspective focuses on the early childhood experiences, unconscious mind as well as interpersonal relationships (Tavris Wade, 2008). These are three characteristics that help psychodynamic psychologists to analyze obsessive compulsive disorder. The perspective was developed by Sigmund Freud. He says that the mind of a person has three principal components: the ego, the superego, and the id. The id emphasizes on the psyche, whereas ego is just an element of psyche that makes someone have demands. In regard to OCD, the ego, that is, the conscious, rational mind of OCD patients is disturbed by their compulsions and obsessions. Consequently, they would use ego defense mechanism through actions like reaction formation, isolation and undoing. In isolation, patients with OCD would see some thoughts as alien and refute them to be theirs. In the same breath, in reaction formation, the patient with OCD tries to live a life that is obverse to what their undesirable impulse dictat e. For instance, someone pay decide to lead a celibate life to conceal their obsessive sexual desires. Humanistic perspective The self-image as depicted by a person due to inner feelings This perspective lays emphasis on how people are unique and how their inner feelings are a reflection of their self-image (Tavris Wade, 2008). In this case, a victim of OCD, can be a person who shall demand that everything must be done perfectly. Their inner feelings shall always make them think that whatever they are doing is right. In addition, this person shall always want his ideas to be just right and will always want to be right. In this case, a psychologist shall be able to analyze the cause of OCD to a certain person by considering their inner feelings and self-image. Evidence used to support each perspective Psychological perspective Brief description of studies offered to support the perspectives to explain the cause of OCD Evaluation of data methods used by each perspective Behavioral perspective This perspective uses scientific methodology to study some behaviors (Menzies, 2003). In classical conditioning, a neutral stimulus becomes linked to threatening thoughts or experiences and this leads to the development of anxiety. Whereas, in operant conditioning, the patient with OCD learns that the anxiety is decreased by a certain behavior, and thus becomes compulsion. Therefore, this perspective is significant in treating OCD, doctors to expose OCD individuals to situations where they can perform compulsive rituals which helps to decrease anxiety. Also, doctors can expose the patients to the stimuli they fear, through a therapy called exposure and response prevention therapy until they discover that their anxiety was basically useless or groundless. Observation was the method used here. In this case, classical conditioning explains how stimuli affect peoples behavior. For example, a person who is excessive prayerful and has deep thoughts regarding their spiritual life and conditions him/herself to prayers every time they see something wrong. It is observable even today people who excessively pray would consider praying upon realizing something is wrong. For example, if they hear that accident has occurred somewhere they will quickly offer prayers. In this case, the experiment of a dog and bell justify how obsessive compulsive disorder is caused. It tells us that the actions or behavior a victim can exhibit sometimes may be as a result of conditioning. Cognitive perspective A persons memory or mental processes have a direct link with the information which enters their mind (Menzies, 2003). Again, when the information enters ones memory, the way it is processed matters a lot. Thus, the information that enters one memory would this approach input-process-output. Most importantly, doctor use this perspective by employing face and scientific validity. In face validity, a patient with OCD has faulty cognitions that in most case surround their sense of personal responsibility. Therefore, this perspective is used to treat faulty cognitions OCD individual has. There is empirical evidence which supports the face validity, hence making it have a scientific validity in treating OCD patients. The method used here is experimentation. Where information is fed to a computer, processed and output is then received. This has OCD victims behave. In this case, if a person is a person receives information that associates darkness with bad happenings that information is taken to the memory which processes it. Eventually, the output shall be fear for darkness. References Tavris, C., Wade, C. (2008). Psychology in perspective. Indianapolis, Ind: Prentice Hall. Menzies, R. G., De, S. P. (2003). Obsessive compulsive disorder: Theory, research, and treatment. Chichester, West Sussex, England: Wiley.