Question

Cecil is a college student who had OCD. Even though his apartment is spotless, he is extremely nervous because his girlfriend is visiting his home for the first time. He is now preoccupied with thoughts that the germs in his apartment will make his girlfriend sick. In order to reduce his anxiety, he is now counting his heartbeats aloud as he washes his hands. Provide a reason for his behavior from each of the three perspectives:
Learning
Biological/evolutionary
Psychoanalytical

Answer 1

In the learning perspective, you can include how his OCD had no predisposition but was rather a result of conditioning, and he had positive reinforcement for keeping things clean or negative punishment for being dirty. You can elaborate on this.

In the biological/evolutionary perspective, you can say that Cecil may have a genetic predisposition of OCD, and that someone in his family has a history of OCD as well.

In the psychoanalytical perspective, you should account OCD to his unconscious state. It seems like he is nervous because his girlfriend is visiting his house for the first time. He is also 'preoccupied with thoughts that the germs in his apartment will make his girlfriend sick'. These statements have a lot of connections with psychodynamics. What can you say about this?