Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental health problem which can have deleterious consequences for interpersonal and mental well-being. Excessive reassurance seeking (ERS) is thought of as seeking confirmation from others that an action has been performed or that a negative outcome will not occur, despite having received this information previously. Researchers have suggested that the function of ERS in OCD is to gain certainty that one is safe from potential harm, or to allay feelings of anxiety by reducing the perceived threat or by increasing the coping resources an individual believes s/he has, usually involving seeking the support of others to reduce feelings of personal responsibility. This study thus seeks to examine the influence of inflated responsibility beliefs on ERS behaviour in OCD. 120 participants will be randomly assigned to receive either low or high feedback ambiguity, and to participate in the study either with a trusted individual or with a confederate. Participants will be told that they are helping to validate a new biohazard scanner, and will be asked to place their hand in a container of liquid in which a fictitious contaminant has been placed. Participants will be given the opportunity to wash their hands in the laboratory kitchen, and will then be asked to place their hand in a scanner. Participants in the high ambiguity condition will receive feedback that there is a 50% chance that the contaminant remains, while those in the low ambiguity condition will be told that there is only a 2% chance. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss the situation for 3 minutes either with their trusted person, or with the confederate. The results of this study will clarify how ERS changes when participants are in the company of significant others vs. relative strangers in clear and ambiguous situations, which may have implications for generating effective targets for the treatment of responsibility and ERS during interventions for OCD.