HIV Insight: Dimensions of Delusions and Attribution Biases along the Continuum of Psychosis

Monday, December 7, 2015

Dimensions of Delusions and Attribution Biases along the Continuum of Psychosis

This study compared delusional dimensions and attribution biases along the continuum of psychosis. Participants completed questionnaires on delusion-like beliefs and attributions. Although patients with first-episode psychosis (N = 70) endorsed fewer delusion-like beliefs than non-clinical individuals with psychotic-like experiences (N = 12), they scored highest on delusional conviction, distress and preoccupation, followed by non-clinical individuals with psychotic-like experiences, and then healthy controls (N = 642). Self-serving bias was found in patients and non-clinical individuals with psychotic-like experiences, but not in healthy controls. Personalizing bias for negative events was not significantly different across the three groups. When compared with healthy controls, non-clinical individuals with psychotic-like experiences had an exaggerated self-serving bias, but were not more marked in personalizing bias. Self-serving bias and personalizing bias were both associated with delusional dimensions. However, the association between self-serving bias and number of delusion-like beliefs was stronger among patients than non-clinical participants. Future research could investigate the extent to which self-serving bias, in combination with an appraisal of delusional ideation as convincing, distress, and preoccupying, contributes to the development of clinical delusions.

Below: Association between attributional biases and number of delusional ideations.