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Related Experiment Videos

Attributional style, defensive functioning and persecutory delusions: symptom-specific or general coping strategy?

Lloyd Humphreys1, Christine Barrowclough

  • 1Psychology Services, Bolton, Salford and Trafford Mental Health NHS Trust, Manchester, UK. lloyd.humphreys@bstmht.nhs.uk

The British Journal of Clinical Psychology
|May 25, 2006
PubMed
Summary

Individuals with persecutory delusions do not show a specific self-serving bias. Instead, lower self-esteem and a self-serving bias were linked to fewer psychotic experiences in this study.

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Area of Science:

  • Psychology
  • Psychiatry
  • Cognitive Science

Background:

  • Previous research suggests persecutory delusions involve self-serving bias for self-concept protection.
  • Existing studies show inconsistent findings, possibly due to unreliable measurement tools.
  • This study investigates defensive functioning in persecutory delusions with improved methodology.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To re-examine the theory of self-serving bias in persecutory delusions.
  • To determine if defensive functioning is a defining characteristic of persecutory delusions.
  • To utilize improved methods for more reliable assessment.

Main Methods:

  • Cross-sectional study of 35 participants with recent onset psychosis.
  • Employed overt (Attributional Style Questionnaire, Internal Personal and Situational Attributions Questionnaire) and covert (Pragmatic Inference Test) attributional style measures.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Assessed self-esteem using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Inventory and a semi-structured interview.

    • Main Results:

    • A self-serving bias was found in the total sample but not specifically in participants with persecutory delusions.
    • Self-serving bias was unrelated to paranoia levels across attributional measures.
    • Lower positive and higher negative self-esteem correlated with increased paranoia and self-serving bias.

    Conclusions:

    • Attributional biases in persecutory delusions are not symptom-specific.
    • A self-serving bias was associated with fewer psychotic experiences.
    • Findings challenge previous assumptions and suggest implications for understanding persecutory delusions.