Feelings of incompleteness explain symptoms of OCD and OCPD beyond harm avoidance

Traditional models of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) suggest that neutralizing behaviors are motivated by harm avoidance. However, some individuals with OCD report an experience of discomfort, rather than anxiety per se, as motivating their behavior. Incompleteness has been proposed as another potential motivator of compulsive behaviors. We examined the relative strength of harm avoidance and incompleteness in predicting OCD symptom dimensions in a nonclinical sample (n = 238). We also examined the relationship between incompleteness and symptoms of two conditions with phenotypic similarity to OCD—Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Each involves patterns of repetitive, rigid behavior. Hierarchical regressions returned that incompleteness significantly predicted OCD and OCPD symptoms after controlling for harm avoidance; in some cases, the magnitude of association was stronger for incompleteness than for harm avoidance. We suggest that a better understanding of incompleteness may help to advance conceptualization of OCD and other symptoms.