Incompleteness and not just right experiences in the explanation of Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder Amparo Belloch a,b,n , Gertrudis Fornés a,b , Angel Carrasco b,c , Clara López-Solá d,e , Pino Alonso d,e , Jose M. Menchón d,e a Department of Personality, Faculty of Psychology, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain b Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders Research Unit, I’TOC, Faculty of Psychology, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain c Child and Adolescent Mental Health Outpatients Unit, Hospital Universitario La Fé, Valencia, Spain d OCD Clinical and Research Unit, Department of Psychiatry, Hospital Universitario de Bellvitge, Barcelona, Spain e CIBERSAM (Centro de Investigación en Red de Salud Mental), Carlos III Health Institute, Spain article info Article history: Received 10 July 2015 Received in revised form 28 December 2015 Accepted 7 January 2016 Keywords: Not just right experiences Incompleteness Harm avoidance Obsessive Compulsive Disorder abstract In the past decade, not just right experiences (NJRE) and incompleteness (INC) have attracted renewed interest as putative motivators of symptoms in obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), beyond harm avoidance (HA). This study examines, in 267 non-clinical undergraduates and 47 OCD patients, the dif- ferential contributions of HA, INC, and NJRE to the different OCD symptom dimensions and the pro- pensity to have the disorder. The results indicate that although both the NJRE and INC range from normality to OCD, their number and intensity significantly increase as the obsessional tendencies in- crease, which suggests that they are vulnerability markers for OCD. Although they cannot be considered fully specific to OCD, they are more important in explaining OCD symptoms than general distress and harm-related beliefs, and they are also better indicators of OCD severity than HA. In light of the oper- ationalization of both NJRE and INC across the items on their respective questionnaires, the two con- structs seem to capture different aspects of the same complex underlying construct: whereas INC might refer to a relatively stable disposition or trait of engaging in compulsive rituals, NJRE resemble obsessions more, and the appraisals that individuals ascribe to the experience would motivate the compulsions. & 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The current cognitive conceptualization of obsessive–compul- sive disorder (OCD) postulates harm avoidance (HA) and HA-re- lated beliefs as motivators of symptoms (e.g., Cougle and Lee, 2014; Ecker and Gönner, 2008; OCCWG, 2005), and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5, APA, 2013) also refers to HA as the motivator of overt and covert compulsions. Nonetheless, the heterogeneity of the OCD manifestations sug- gests greater diversity in the symptom motivators, beyond HA (Chik et al., 2010; McKay et al., 2004), such as incompleteness feelings (INC) (Summerfeldt, 2007, 2004; Summerfeldt et al., 2014, 1999) and not just right experiences (NJRE) (Coles et al., 2005, 2003). The roots of incompleteness lie in the notion of sentiments d’incomplétude described by Janet (1903). The return of in- completeness to the current psychopathology of OCD was brought about by Rasmussen and Eisen (1992), and following these au- thors, Summerfeldt and colleagues postulated an OCD model based on two orthogonal core affective-motivational dimensions, HA and INC, which “cut across overt symptoms and may in combi- nation underlie most manifestations of this disorder” (Summerfeldt, 2004, pp. 1157). The HA dimension has been observed in anxiety disorders, but INC feelings are hypothetically unique to OCD and motivated by the impulse to decrease or eliminate inner feelings of imperfection (Summerfeldt, 2004). These feelings can be ex- pressed through any sensory modality, but also through more complex phenomena beyond sensorial experiences, such as thoughts or language expressions. The Obsessive–Compulsive Core Dimensions Questionnaire (OCCDQ; Summerfeldt et al., 2014, 2001) was designed to assess the two proposed dimensions, HA and INC, and the results indicate that although the two dimensions are highly correlated, confirmatory factor analyses support the Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/psychres Psychiatry Research http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2016.01.012 0165-1781/& 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. n Correspondence to: Department of Personality, Faculty of Psychology, Uni- versity of Valencia, Avenida Blasco Ibáñez, 21, 46010 Valencia, Spain. E-mail addresses: amparo.belloch@uv.es (A. Belloch), gertrudis.fornes@uv.es (G. Fornés), angelcator@gmail.com (A. Carrasco), claral@bellvitgehospital.cat (C. López-Solá), mpalonso@bellvitgehospital.cat (P. Alonso), jmenchon@bellvitgehospital.cat (J.M. Menchón). Please cite this article as: Belloch, A., et al., Incompleteness and not just right experiences in the explanation of Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder. Psychiatry Research (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2016.01.012i Psychiatry Research ∎ (∎∎∎∎) ∎∎∎–∎∎∎