Enhancing motivation for exposure to disgust - A feasibility study with a non-clinical sample

Abstract

The most effective therapy for patients with a contamination-related sub-type of obsessive-compulsive disorder is exposure with response prevention. However, several studies show that a notable proportion of patients do not benefit from exposure. One possible reason is the high functionality of compulsive thoughts and actions in shortly reducing aversive thoughts and feelings, which might cause high ambivalence and low willingness towards exposure. The present study investigates whether ambivalence and willingness can be influenced by additional motivational strategies to more effectively reduce disgust during exposure. Therefore, 54 healthy subjects were randomly assigned to either a standard exposure condition or an exposure condition whereby self-reference and action competences were amplified. The results show that disgust habituated strongly and willingness as well as persuasiveness were significant predictors of exposure success. However, the motivational intervention had no impact on disgust reduction. In light of the few experimental studies and the general difficulty of operationalizing motivational processes, four concrete implications of the study for future research are discussed.