Unit 4 Psychology Ocd Study Guide Graded A+

Biological explanations for OCD: Genetics AO1 {Ans: Genetic research attempts to establish whether there is a familial genetic link i.e. whether the tendency to develop OCD is hereditary. Research is mainly focused around family studies, analysing evidence from research that looks at first degree relatives. Twin studies have also been conducted, comparing the concordance rates (the likelihood of the twins both being affected by the disorder) between identical (MZ) twins and fraternal (DZ) twins.}Reliability of diagnosis for OCD: AO1 (Issue 2) {Ans: Different assessment methods are used: Reliability of diagnosis using informal and unstructured interviews tends to be lower however, more semi-structured interviews have been developed. The structural clinical interview for DSM-IV includes an open ended interview plus more structured questions about symptoms and other disorders. Also, the anxiety disorder interview schedule for DSM-IV is a semi structured interview with symptoms identified on a yes/no basis and then rated for severity. Brown et al carried out 2 interviews, 2 weeks apart on 1400 patients. The interview investigated various anxiety disorders and depression. Inter-rater reliability for OCD was higher than other anxiety disorders or depression. This suggests that the presence of compulsions make OCD easier to diagnose.}Clinical characteristics of