Qualitative paper #2

Stress in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders

Luisa Tieso

Walden University

The Influence of Stress in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders

Stress is a response when a person feels pressured, threatened or worried. When the body is stressed, the nervous system reacts by releasing a stress hormone called adrenaline and cortisol (Stress and your health, 2014). Consequently, stress prepares the body for emergencies; the physical effects of stress is increased heart rate, sweaty palms, tense muscles, and increased attentiveness. However, not all stress is bad, stress is good when it is controlled and last for only a short period, for example, when a person is nervous just before speaking in public, after the speech the person is back to normal. However, stress is harmful to the body when it is uncontrolled and last for a long period, especially for those patients that are diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

OCD is a chronic psychiatric disorder that consists of a person with irrational and illogical thoughts followed by repetitive compulsory behaviors in which interferes with daily living (Morgado, Freitas, Bessa, Sousa, & Cerqueia, 2013). OCD impairs the individual with persistent obsessive behaviors and unpleasant thoughts thus causing anxiety, nervousness and stress. However, repetitive actions ease the tension, stress, and irrational thoughts, for example, an individual might check the door lock a dozen times before resting or checking if the gas stove is off before leaving the house. The action of checking guarantees the individual temporary peace of mind thus relieving stress, however, these actions in itself interfere with normal daily living and thus creating a cycle of increased stress again. Therefore, patients diagnosed with OCD should recognize that lowering instances of stress may decrease unwarranted symptoms.

The purpose of this study is to compare two groups of people with OCD and measure the influence of stress in each participant and compare those with a lower level of stress. The hypothesis for this study is that if stress levels are high in individuals with OCD, symptoms will be more prevalent and if stress levels are low, OCD symptoms will be less frequent. Be sure and present your research questions prior to your hypotheses. You want to do that after your purpose statement. So if I understand your study your IV is Level of Stress (Low vs High), and your DV would be frequency of OCD symptoms? If so, don’t forget you need to present both the null and alternative hypotheses. If you went with what I’m suggesting here you’d have a null hypothesis of no difference in OCD symptoms between the High and Low stress groups.

Method

The study will use a research focus group company to gather participants of two groups of 20 diagnosed with OCD. Each participant of each group will have 10 minutes to assemble a puzzle. However, participants from group one will have a sample of the finished puzzle and an additional 15 minutes to complete. Group number two will not have a sample of the finished puzzle and will not have extra time. At the end of the activity, participants from both groups will complete the perceived stress assessment test PSS-10 in which is a 10 question survey assessing the degree of stress. I have chosen this research design because it is the most productive and effective way to gather information from participants and a quick way to analyze the score and have immediate results. Gender, age, and race of participants will be randomly selected and randomly put into either group. Ok, so my idea above is not really what you want to do here. So I’m not clear on your IV and DV. I think you need to clarify that. Also, it would be helpful if you generally commented upon how you plan on analyzing your data.

References:

Morgado, P., Freitas, D., Bessa, J. M., Sousa, N., & Cerqueia, J. (2013). Perceived stress in obsessive–compulsive disorder is related with obsessive but not compulsive symptoms. Front Psychiatry, 4(21), 1-6. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00021

Stress and your health. (2014). Retrieved from U.S. National Library of Medicine: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003211.htm