Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 24, 2026

Handwriting Analysis Indicates Spontaneous Dyskinesias in Neuroleptic Naïve Adolescents at High Risk for Psychosis
Published on: November 21, 2013
Attributional style among youth at clinical risk for psychosis
Jordan E Devylder1, Shelly Ben-David, David Kimhy
1School of Social Work, Division of Cognitive Neuroscience, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY 10027, USA. jed2147@columbia.edu
Aim:
A biased attributional style, in which negative events are attributed to external and personal causes, is associated with paranoid delusions in schizophrenia. It is not known whether this biased attributional style also characterizes individuals at clinical risk for psychosis or if it is associated with their emergent paranoia.
Methods:
Thirty-three clinical high-risk patients and 15 age- and gender-similar controls were assessed with the Internal, Personal, and Situational Attributions Questionnaire for externalizing and personalizing attributional biases and for potential correlates with suspiciousness and other symptoms.
Results:
Both patients and controls had a similar external-personalizing attributional style that was unrelated to symptoms, including suspiciousness.
Conclusions:
Consistent with other studies, a biased attributional style was not associated with subthreshold paranoia. Therefore, a biased attributional style is likely not a trait that contributes to emergent paranoid delusions but is instead a state-dependent correlate of paranoid delusions.
Related Concept Videos
Fundamental Attribution Error
Theory of Attribution II: Kelley's Covariation Theory
Attribution Theory
Theory of Attribution I: Correspondent Inference Theory
Psychological and Sociocultural Causes of Schizophrenia
Self-Presentation: Self-Monitoring and Self-Handicapping

