How can I know what I'm feeling? Obsessive-compulsive tendencies and induced doubt are related to reduced access to emotional states

Abstract

Background and objectivePeople's feelings are not always accessible to them, and this might be especially the case for some individuals and in some situations. Based on our model of obsessive-compulsive disorder, we predicted that obsessive-compulsive (OC) tendencies and situationally induced doubt would be associated with decreased access to one's own emotions. MethodsIn the first two studies we examined the relationships between OC tendencies and performance on the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT). In Study 3 we undermined participants' confidence in their ability to accurately assess their own emotions and assessed the effect of this manipulation on MSCEIT performance. ResultsAs predicted, OC tendencies were associated with lower scores on the Experiential area of the MSCEIT, which relies on access to experienced emotions, but not on the Strategic area, which relies on semantic knowledge about emotions. Similarly, undermining participants' confidence in their own emotions reduced their scores on the Experiential, but not on the Strategic area of the MSCEIT. LimitationsThe findings should be replicated with a clinical OCD population and with other measures of emotional experience. ConclusionThese studies suggest that impaired access to emotional states may be caused by doubting those states, that it characterizes people with high OC tendencies, and that it might be a manifestation of a more general difficulty in accessing internal states.