BACKGROUND Bullying is a risk factor for developing psychotic experiences (PEs). Whether bullying is associated with particular PEs, and the extent to which genes and environments influence the association, are unknown. This study investigated which specific PEs in adolescence are associated with earlier bullying victimization and the genetic and environmental contributions underlying their ass...

The role of negative cognition and effect in maintaining psychotic symptoms is increasingly recognized but has yet to be substantiated though longitudinal analysis. Based on an a priori theoretical model, we hypothesized that negative cognition and depressed mood play a direct causal role in maintaining paranoia in people with psychosis and that the effect of mood is mediated by negative cognit...

BACKGROUND Numerous studies have shown that paranoia is common in the nonclinical population; however, little research has examined whether nonclinical paranoid beliefs change over time, or considered potential reasons for change. AIMS The aim of the present study was therefore to examine naturalistic change in nonclinical paranoid experiences. METHOD 60 participants described an idiosyncra...

BACKGROUND In recent years a close association between anxiety and persecutory ideation has been established, contrary to the traditional division of neurosis and psychosis. Nonetheless, the two experiences are distinct. The aim of this study was to identify factors that distinguish the occurrence of social anxiety and paranoid thoughts in an experimental situation. METHOD Two hundred non-cli...

This study examined whether paranoid beliefs are associated with instability of self-esteem (SE) as hypothesized by Bentall et al. [Bentall, R. P., Corcoran, R., Howard, R., Blackwood, N., & Kinderman, P. (2001). Persecutory delusions: A review and theoretical integration. Clinical Psychology Review, 21, 1143–1192] in a community-based sample. Measures assessing SE, SE instability, paranoid ide...

The term “paranoia” is derived from a Greek words meaning “madness”, “beside”, and “mind”. The term was used to describe a mental illness in which a delusional belief is the sole or most prominent feature. Kraepelin used the term “pure paranoia” to describe a condition in which a delusions was present, but without any apparent deterioration in intellect and without any of the other features of ...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Biased processing of negatively valenced, and particularly threat-related material plays an important role in the development of paranoid thinking. This has been demonstrated by superior memory for threat-related information in patients with persecutory delusions and in non-clinical paranoia-prone participants. This study examined how emotional material was recalled ha...

OBJECTIVE Impaired Theory of Mind (ToM) is found in adults with schizophrenia and is associated with paranoid symptoms. Insecure attachment is proposed to underlie impaired ToM as well as paranoia. Insight into associations between insecure attachment and impaired ToM skills may help clinicians and patients to understand interpersonal difficulties and use this knowledge to improve recovery. Thi...

BACKGROUND Research suggested that negative affective-laden sounds act as environmental stressors that elicit negative affect (Bradley and Lang, 2000a). AIMS We tried to test for the role of an interaction between predisposition to hallucinatory experiences and exposure to negative affective laden sounds for the presence of paranoid ideation. METHOD We used an experimental design that follo...