PERCEIVED RESPONSIBILITY - STRUCTURE AND SIGNIFICANCE

Given the postulated significance of inflated responsibility in obsess ive compulsive disorder (OCD), there is a need for clarification of th e concept itself and a means for measuring such responsibility. Two ps ychometric studies were conducted in order to develop a reliable self- report scale. In the first study 291 students completed the specially constructed Responsibility Appraisal Questionnaire (RAQ). Four factors emerged: responsibility for harm, responsibility in social contexts, a positive outlook towards responsibility, and thought-action fusion ( TAF). In the second study, 234 students completed a revised RAQ. Four comparable factors emerged, and the TAF subscale correlated significan tly with measures of obsessionality, guilt, acid depression. The corre lations between TAF and obsessionality and guilt remained significant even after BDI scores were controlled. It is concluded that the broad concept of inflated responsibility needs to be qualified; the connecti on between inflated responsibility and OCD appears to be situation-spe cific and idiosyncratic. There is more inflated responsibility than th ere is OCD. The measured concept of inflated responsibility is multifa ctorial (harm, social, positive, and TAF), not unitary. The TAF factor appears to be particularly significant in OCD.