Conference paper
THE ROLE OF MORAL DISGUST AND DISGUST REGULATION DEFICITS IN SKIN-PICKING DISORDER
Anne Schienle
orcid.org/0000-0003-2173-6626
; Clinical Psychology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
Abstract
Background: Relative to other body-focused repetitive behaviors, skin-picking has received little investigation. In particular, its
association with disgust has hardly been studied. This is surprising because one etiological model of skin-picking disorder (SPD)
suggests that the excessive picking is a form of disgust-motivated grooming that aims at the removal of pathogens from the skin.
Subjects and methods: This questionnaire study explored whether SPD patients (n=46) and healthy controls (n=36) differ in
different facets of trait disgust (tendency to experience pathogen disgust, moral disgust, self-disgust, and disgust regulation ability). Moreover, a multiple regression analysis was calculated in order to investigate whether skin-picking symptoms can be predicted based on these components of trait disgust.
Results: Patients received higher scores on all disgust measures than controls. The degree of patients’ skin picking (symptom
severity, resulting impairment) could be predicted based on moral disgust (disgust experienced when confronted with moral
transgressions) and difficulties in disgust regulation.
Conclusion: This study provides evidence for the role of specific disgust components in SPD.
Keywords
skin-picking disorder; moral disgust; disgust sensitivity
Hrčak ID:
263788
URI
Publication date:
22.6.2018.
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