Validation of questionnaires in relation to overcontrol Version 1.2
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Validation of two personality questionnaires and investigation of trait mindfulness in relation to over control. Advertised as VALIDATION OF TWO PERSONALITY QUESTIONNAIRES AND INVESTIGATION OF A MINDFULNESS MODEL
IRAS ID
227028
Contact name
Dionysios Seretis
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Southampton
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Empirical consensus suggests that mental illness chronicity is often reflective of enduring maladaptive coping patterns related to underlying personality structure. Research by Lynch and colleagues have characterized such psychopathology along dimensions of control, identifying two primary approaches with clinical relevance. Overcontrolled (OC) personality manifests via tendencies for rigidity, compulsive striving, and detachment, and has been linked to disorders such as Anorexia Nervosa, Treatment-Resistant Depression, and Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD). The Undercontrolled (UC) phenotype exhibits traits such as poor impulse control and emotional lability, and has been linked to Antisocial and Borderline Personality Disorder. Despite a plethora of research on UC personality, studies on OC personality and the prototypical OC disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD), are scant. Significantly, there is no screening measure for OC/OCPD and researchers disagree about its key traits.
We have developed an empirically-derived assessment algorithm which consists of two new self-report measures that aim to assess maladaptive OC/OCPD: the Brief Overcontrol Scale (BOS) a screening, adjective-based measure and the Maladaptive Overcontrol Questionnaire (MOQ), an in depth rating scale of OC/OCPD personality traits.However, validation has so far relied on self-reported data in students and the community. Further investigation in a clinical sample is needed in order to investigate the psychometric properties of the questionnaires and to identify which personality traits affect most severely the well-being of this group of patients. To address these issues we will cross-validate the measures against clinicians’ diagnoses and self-report measures in a sample of individuals who have OCPD and sub-clinical OCPD. Our main hypotheses are: a) the measures will retain the same structure in OCPD patients that was shown with students and community samples and b) the measures will demonstrate good psychometric properties in patients (measured by internal consistency, convergent, divergent and criterion validity).
REC name
London - Westminster Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/LO/1803
Date of REC Opinion
3 Nov 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion