Hoarding Behavior

Hoarding Behavior

Hoarding, particularly compulsive hoarding, is a complex behavioral phenomenon that psychologists struggle to understand fully. Stephen Kellett describes the analysis and treatment of hoarding disorders as “a challenge to researchers and therapists in terms of conceptualization/engagement in treatment/associated intervention outcomes,” to which he concludes compulsive hoarding to be “an unresolved clinical challenge” (Stephen Kellett, "Compulsive Hoarding: a Site-Security Model and Associated Psychological Treatment Strategies", 413). Even better, Ancy Cherian and Randy Frost provide a concise definition of what compulsive hoarding actually is: “Compulsive hoarding is a potentially disabling syndrome that includes three primary symptoms: (a) the acquisition of and failure to discard a large number of possessions that appear to be useless or of limited value, (b) living spaces sufficiently cluttered so as to preclude activities for which those spaces were designed, and (c) significant distress or impairment in functioning caused by hoarding” (Ancy E. Cherian, and Randy O. Frost, "Treating Compulsive Hoarding", 231).
Cherian and Frost elaborate more on their definition by relating it to material objects. The idea behind hoarding is that an excessive number of objects are kept that, one way or another, invariably become too space-wasting and inhibit normal human functioning. To associate too much value to an object, namely when it is in actuality worth much less, can cause a person to hoard a specific kind or variation of object. For example, receiving an item for free may be relatively worthless, hence its having been given for free, however someone might associate a certain, excessive, value with that object and in turn keep it or collect more of its kind. What Cherian and Frost attempt in their study is to “assist with case formulation and treatment planning” (Cherian and Frost, 231).
The work of Astrid Mueller and colleagues furthers this concept by relating compulsive buying to compulsive hoarding. Mueller’s team’s research indicates that some, but not all, people experience both “syndromes,” as they could be called, and as a result experience a slew of complex symptoms that fed off each other in a manner that perpetuates the disorder (Astrid Mueller et. al, "Hoarding in a Compulsive Buying Sample", 2754). On a related but separate problem, the research of Kiara Cromer, Norman B. Schmidt, and Dennis L. Murpy studied the effect of traumatic experiences on the onset of hoarding tendencies in certain people. Cromer says that 24% of her sample, or persons classified as “hoarders,” were significantly more likely to have experienced a traumatic life event (Cromer, Kiara R., Norman B. Schmidt, and Dennis L. Murpy, “Do traumatic events influence the clinical expression of compulsive hoarding?”, 2581). Following in the wake of this discovery, Cromer reveals that the “clutter factor of compulsive hoarding ... was most strongly associated with having experienced a traumatic event” (Cromer 2581).
To complete the conversation of this topic, the research of H. C. Lehman and P. A. Witty deserves reflection. These researchers stratified child subjects into categories of age in order to study the likelihood of a hoarding disorder onsetting at different ages. They found that older children were less likely to begin or maintain collections of varying kinds, and only 10% of their entire child population was still building a collection. While these findings disagreed with previous studies of the same kind, it did conclude in a similar fashion that childhood collecting peaks at 10 years of age (H. C. Lehman and P. A. Witty, “The Present Status of the Tendency to Collect and Hoard”, 48).

Hoarding is a fascinating psychological phenomenon, which may be one of the motives fueling its continued, dynamic research, as discussed here.


Works Cited
Cherian, Ancy E., and Randy O. Frost. "Treating Compulsive Hoarding." Psychological Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Fundamentals and Beyond. Ed. Martin M. Antony, Christine Purdon, and Laura J. Summerfeldt. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2007. 231-249.
Cromer, Kiara R., Norman B. Schmidt, and Dennis L. Murpy. "Do Traumatic Events Influence the Clinical Expression of Compulsive Hoarding?" (2006). Abstract. Behaviour Research and Therapy 45 (2007): 2581-2592.
Kellett, Stephen. "Compulsive Hoarding: a Site-Security Model and Associated Psychological Treatment Strategies." Abstract. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy 14 (2007): 413-427.
Mueller, Astrid, Ulrike Mueller, Patricia Albert, Christian Mertens, Andrea Silbermann, James E. Mitchell, and Martina De Zwaan. "Hoarding in a Compulsive Buying Sample." Abstract. Behaviour Research and Therapy 45 (2007): 2754-2763.
Witty, P A., and H C. Lehman. "The Present Status of the Tendency to Collect and Hoard." Abstract. Psychological Review 34 (1927): 48-56.