FINAL OUTPUT

IN

ABNORMAL
PSYCHOLOGY
(CASE STUDY: OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDER)

Submitted by: Bustria, Aileen L.

Submitted to: Ms. Jobelle Resuello

CASE
Maria is a 65 year old married woman, short and slightly overweight, very attentive to the way
she dresses. She is very loquacious and open to answering questions. Her mother died at the age
of 15, when she was 8 years old and her mother, who was a very beautiful woman and very
attentive to her, used to apply a wide variety of creams and body lotions. Among those there was
one which Maria found to be very disgusting, her moms depilatory cream. Maria reports that
since the first time she saw her mother applying the depilatory cream on her lips, she felt a strong
disgusting feeling in her stomach and chills along the extremities followed by the urge to wash
her hands with sterilizing soap. Since that day, every time she saw her mother applying the cream
she would get that same disgusting feeling and run to the sink and wash her hands three times. A
few days after her mother died, 7 years ago, the thought about her mother became constant in
Marias mind and every time she thinks about her mom she remembers her with that cream on
her face; she has to immediately wash her hands three times, and this happens quite often during
the day. She has always been very conscientious about being infected, about viruses and bacteria
and contagious diseases, when her children were young and got sick she used to leave them with
her husband and the babysitter until they would have been better and healthy again, because she
didnt want to get infected. She's having a thought of getting infected means to get dirty. She
feels dirty also every time she remembers her mom with that cream on her face and therefore she
has the urge to wash her hands.Her children are now grown up and she is a grandmother of five.
Her sons live in different cities and visit her only two to three times per year. She says that she is
happy about this and even if she loves her grand-children, she cannot stand to have them home
for more than three hours, because they are filthy and dirty and carry dust and dirt. Every time
she spends more than 3 hours playing with her grandchildren, she needs to take a shower and
scratch all the dirt away from her skin. She has lots of friends and because of that she loves to
entertain them in her own house mostly. She doesnt like to go into other peoples houses
because she'll never knows how clean they really are. After her guests have left, she cannot go to
bed until she has cleaned up the all place from the dirt her guests bought along. She also feels
strange feeling in her mouth which had started 2 months ago; not really a pain, just a sensation of
a worm in her teeth. The thought of it makes her feel even more disgusted and every time she has
that feeling, she needs to brush her teeth three times.

ASSESSMENT
Clinical Observation
-

Naturalistic Observation
Self Monitoring

MODELS OF ABNORMALITIES

PSYCHODYNAMIC PERSPECTIVE

Maria obviously rooted her obsession to cleanliness together with compulsion to reduce her
anxiety about getting infected by dirt, virus or any diseases. It started when her mother who used
to apply a wide variety or creams and lotions put depilatory cream to her lips which she found
disgusting due to the chills she felt into her stomach along her extremeties , because of that she
had always urge to wash her hands with sterilized soap a defense mechanism in a form of
compulsion to reduce her anxiety. This kind of obsession to cleanliness brought by id impulses
compulsive actions carried by Maria though her mother died till on her 60s even just by
remembering her mother she suddenly had urge to wash her hands with sterilized soap.

BEHAVIORAL PERSPECTIVE

Maria always do the compulsion of washing her hands with sterilized soap because she believes
that it was the only way for her not to be contaminated by others. Until she grows older her
compulsive actions became worst as she was her 3 times a day. It was her way to avoid and
reduce her anxiety and she also believes it would be better for her.

COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE

Maria had distorted thoughts and she blame herself for it although it were repetitive and intrusive
and because of it she always expecting that terrible things will happen as a result. Maria wants to
have perfect control over their thoughts and behavior maladaptive thoughts and behavior. Her
maladaptive thoughts about cleanliness made her to do compulsive actions. These distorted
thoughts lead Maria to become worst and she dont want her children and grandsons to be in her
house for almost three hours and if she invented her friends to her house, she cant sleep well
after it until she clean her house neatly even its late in the evening. Maria associates dirt to her
mothers depilatory cream because of its disgusting effects, and in contact to other people so
with or without the presence or any activity related activities to these shes having compulsion.

BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

From the case of Maria her obsession compulsion behaviors were brought by the abnormal
brain functioning and abnormal serotonin activities. Her neurons are too active to fire that kind
of neurotransmitter. Maria can also get that obsession to cleanliness from her mother as she
knows that her mother used different lotions and creams especially depilatory creams which can
be associated to cleanliness. As her mother put depilatory cream to her lips which is found in her
mouth area, she began to have distorted thoughts that brought strange feeling in her mouth, a
sensation of having worms in her teeth because of that shell brush her teeth 3 times.

SOCIO-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

Theres a possibility that Maria was living in an area where dirt and diseases are widely spread.
That social factor might one of the cause of Marias obsession to cleanliness. Maria might also
have social pressures of being neat and orderly as she was very attentive to the way she dresses.

HUMANISIC-EXISTENTIAL PERSPECTIVE

From the case of Maria she has phenomenological experience from her behavior. She had too
much self awareness especially relating to cleanliness but still she can communicate and relate to
other people.

DIAGNOSIS
According to Marias case she had both presence of obsessions and compulsions which are
recurrent especially when its about cleanliness. She also experienced distress and impairments
brought by her anxiety and time consuming compulsion actions to reduce it. From those
symptoms Maria had an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

THERAPY
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Cognitive Therapy
Behavioral Therapy
Biological Therapy

RECOMMENDATIONS

Exercise regularly
Ger enough sleep
Practice relaxation techniques
Learn how to resist your OCD rituals
Dont avoid your fears
Stay connected to your family and friends
Get yourself occupied
Forget unecessary past memories and moved on