Background

Past research links hoarding disorder (HD) to indecisiveness and difficulty with decision-making. However, it remains unclear what contributes to difficulty making decisions in HD. Decision-making research suggests that some individuals have a maximizing decision-making style (seeking the best option through an exhaustive search of all existing alternatives) while others “satisfice” (choosing options that are satisfactory even without seeing all options). Past work has linked the dispositional tendency to maximize in decisions to elevated depression, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms, but no study has investigated whether maximizing may be relevant for hoarding behaviors.

Method

We administered measures of hoarding behaviors, decision-making style (maximizing vs satisficing), generalized difficulty with decision-making (indecisiveness), distress (depression, anxiety and stress symptoms) and OCD symptoms to a sample of community adults (N = 1113) recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk).

Results

The tendency to maximize in decision-making was significantly correlated with hoarding symptoms (including difficulty discarding possessions, excessive acquisition, and clutter). Moreover, regression results showed that maximizing predicted hoarding severity after controlling for indecisiveness, general distress and OCD symptoms.

Limitations

We utilized self-report questionnaires in an unscreened community sample. Replication in a clinical sample is needed.

Conclusions

The dispositional tendency to maximize in decisions may represent a specific aspect of decision-making relevant for hoarding behaviors. Implications for improving cognitive-behavioral models and treatments are discussed.

中文翻译：

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最大化决策风格和囤积障碍症状。

背景

过去的研究将囤积障碍 (HD) 与优柔寡断和决策困难联系起来。然而，目前尚不清楚是什么导致了 HD 决策困难。决策研究表明，一些人具有最大化的决策风格（通过详尽搜索所有现有替代方案来寻求最佳选择），而另一些人则“满意”（即使没有看到所有选项，也能选择令人满意的选项）。过去的工作已将在决策中最大化的倾向与抑郁、焦虑和强迫症 (OCD) 症状升高联系起来，但没有研究调查最大化是否与囤积行为有关。

方法

我们对社区成年人样本进行了囤积行为、决策风格（最大化与满足）、普遍决策困难（优柔寡断）、痛苦（抑郁、焦虑和压力症状）和强迫症症状的测量（N  = 1113）通过 Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) 招募。

结果

最大化决策的趋势与囤积症状（包括难以丢弃财产、过度获取和杂乱）显着相关。此外，回归结果表明，在控制优柔寡断、一般痛苦和强迫症症状后，最大限度地提高预测的囤积严重程度。

限制

我们在未经筛选的社区样本中使用了自我报告问卷。需要在临床样本中进行复制。

结论

在决策中最大化的倾向可能代表了与囤积行为相关的决策的一个特定方面。讨论了改进认知行为模型和治疗的意义。