going along with anyone else’s ideas. These individuals plan ahead in meticulous detail
and are unwilling to consider changes. Totally  wrapped up in their own perspective, they
have difficulty acknowledging the viewpoints of others. Friends and colleagues may be-
come frustrated by this constant rigidity. Even when individuals with obsessive-compul-
sive personality disorder recognize that it may be in their interest to compromise, they
may stubbornly refuse to do  so, arguing that it is “t he principle of the thing.”
Associated Features Supporting Diagnosis
When rules and established procedures do not dictate the correct answer, decision making
may become a time-consuming, often painfu l process. Individuals with obsessive-
compulsive personality disorder may have such difficulty deciding which tasks take pri-
ority or what is the best way of doing some pa rticular task that they may never get started
on anything. They are prone to become upset or angry in situations in which they are not
able to maintain control of their physical or interpersonal environment, although the an-
ger is typically not expressed di rectly. For example, an individual may be angry when ser-
vice in a restaurant is poor, but instead of complaining to the management, the individual
ruminates about how much to leave as a tip. On other occasions, anger may be expressed
with righteous indignation over a seemingly minor matter. Individuals with this disorder
may be especially attentive to their relative  status in dominance-submission relationships
and may display excessive deference to an au thority they respect and excessive resistance
to authority they do not respect.
Individuals with this disorder usually expres s affection in a highly  controlled or stilted
fashion and may be very uncomfortable in the presence of others who are emotionally ex-
pressive. Their everyday relationships have a formal and serious quality, and they may be