Obsessive compulsive disorder

Cognitive Theory

According to the cognitive model of OCD, everyone experiences intrusive thoughts from time-to-time. However, people with OCD often have an inflated sense of responsibility and misinterpret these thoughts as being very important and significant which could lead to catastrophic consequences. The repeated misinterpretation of intrusive thoughts leads to the development of the obsessions and because the thoughts are so distressing, the individual engages in compulsive behaviour to try to resist, block, or neutralise the obsessive thoughts. The cognitive-behavioural theory grew out of a focus on how people gave meaning to the internal (or external) events The cognitive-behavioural theory is based on the behavioural theory because it starts with the same idea that obsessive thoughts come from normal intrusive thoughts. But, according to the cognitive theory, the difference between normal intrusive thoughts and obsessive intrusive thoughts is not that the thoughts come up or that they are hard to control. Instead, it is how people with OCD think about the fact that the thoughts come up or what they are about.
According to cognitive models, the interpretation of an intrusive thought results in a number of voluntary and involuntary reactions which each in their turn can have an impact on the strength of belief in the original interpretation. Negative appraisals can therefore act as both causal and maintenance agents in OCD.

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  Psychanalytical Theory
  

The psychoanalytic theory says that OCD is caused by a person's fixation on something that comes from unconscious conflicts or discomfort they had as babies or young children, or from how they interacted with their parents when they were young. Psychoanalytic therapy hasn't been able to help people with OCD, so this theory is no longer taken seriously.

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  Environmental Factors
  

The environment we live in can have a huge influence on whether OCD symptoms will develop. Someone with a very strong biological vulnerability to OCD may never go on to develop the illness unless they experience the "right" environmental conditions, such as chronic stress (especially early in life) or a traumatic loss or even a parenting style.