Examination of intrusive experiences as raw material of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in line with Cognitive Behavioral Model

According to the Cognitive-behavioral model, unwanted intrusive thoughts are raw materials of the Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders (OCD). Actually, many people experience these intrusive experiences, but as a result of biased appraisal and control reactions, they turn into psychological problems. Although current self-report measures in scientific studies focuses on general reactions and symptoms, this approach usually ignore possibility of assessment of whole on-going process. Thus, this study primarily aimed to evaluate psychometric properties of the Turkish form of the Obsessive Intrusive Experiences Inventory (OIEI) in a community sample and then, to examine these features in a group of postpartum mothers as compared to a control group. An instrument set including self-report measures on OCD symptoms, obsessive beliefs and thought control was administered to 238 adults. For psychometric evaluations, the factor analyses, internal consistency, group comparisons and correlation, were performed in community sample, while correlation and group comparison analyses were conducted in postpartum mothers. The results of these analyses initially showed that the Turkish OIEI is a reliable and valid measure. The findings supported the notion with a different measure that nonclinical adults in our country also experiences various kinds of unwanted intrusions followed by misappraisals and control efforts, and there are some clues that some categories of unwanted intrusions such as sexual experiences can be distinguished. Moreover, this study also presents some novel and current findings with regard to postpartum intrusive experiences from our culture. In conclusion, these results are discussed in the light of the Cognitive-behavioral models as well as the findings about intrusive and OCD experiences, beliefs, control strategies, similar experiences of nonclinical samples and postpartum mothers.