Psychometric Properties of a Behavioral Test of Contamination-Related Obsessive–Compulsive Symptoms

Abstract

In this study, we evaluated the psychometric properties of a Behavioral Approach Task (BAT) for contamination-related obsessive-compulsive symptoms. We adapted the BAT from Cougle et al 's. (2007) design, which comprised three tests corresponding to three different contamination-related stimuli and a hierarchy of six steps of approach within each test. We obtained anxiety and disgust ratings at each BAT step. Participants with low or high contamination fear completed self-report measures of obsessive-compulsive symptoms and depression before completing the BAT. Internal consistency of the BAT was high. Furthermore, the BAT demonstrated good convergent validity with a self-report measure of contamination-related obsessive-compulsive symptoms. The BAT also had sound discriminant validity with self-report measures of depression and of obsessive-compulsive symptoms other than contamination. Our study suggests that the use of this test as an observable measure of contamination-related fears is not only psychometrically sound but also easy to administer.

Safety Behaviour Enhances the Acceptability of Exposure

“…30), they were permitted to discontinue the BAT. The BAT was coded on a six-point hierarchy (see Table 1), which has been used in previous research on contamination-related OCD (Cougle, Wolitzky-Taylor, Lee, & Telch, 2007;Najmi, Tobin, & Amir, 2012). The number of steps completed served as the measure of beha vioural approach for each contaminant.…”

Disgust mediates the relation between attentional shifting and contamination aversion

“…Behavioral approach tasks (BATs; Najmi, Tobin et al, 2010) The 3 BATs used in the present study were designed to measure willingness to approach three separate contaminants: 1) a toilet, 2) dirty laundry, and 3) mixture of dirt and hair. All participants were asked to provide baseline ratings of their subjective disgust and anxiety (ranging from 0 'not at all disgusted/anxious' to 100 'completely disgusted/anxious') prior to delivering the BAT instructions.…”

The effects of preventive and restorative safety behaviors on a single-session of exposure therapy for contamination fear

“…These stimuli have been used in previous work (Cougle, Wolitzky-Taylor, Lee, & Taylor, 2007;Najmi, Tobin, & Amir, 2012). After being shown the four stimuli, they rated their anticipated fear in response to the items, and the stimulus with the highest fear ratings was chosen for the assessment and exposure tasks ("target exposure stimulus").…”