Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T05:41:29.934Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Attribution Therapy for Paranoid Delusions: A Case Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2009

Peter Kinderman  and
Richard P. Bentall
Peter Kinderman
Affiliation:
University of Manchester
Richard P. Bentall
Affiliation:
Liverpool University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Paranoid delusions are associated with an abnormal attributional style that serves the function of preventing the activation of latent discrepancies between self-perceptions and self-ideals at the expense of contributing to the paranoid patient's negative perceptions of the intentions of others. In this case study we describe a therapeutic strategy designed to allow a patient suffering from persecutory delusions to re-attribute negative life experiences to situational causes rather than to a conspiracy directed towards himself. It was hypothesized that no resistance was encountered from the patiet because no attempt was made to re-attribute negative events to internal causes. A reduction in paranoid ideation, which was maintained at follow-up, was accompanied by changes on formal measures of attributions. The implications of these findings for cognitive models of paranoid ideation, and for the development of interventions for deluded patients are discussed.

Type
Clinical Section
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 25 , Issue 3 , July 1997 , pp. 269 - 280
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abramson, L. Y., Metalsky, G. I., & Alloy, L. B. (1989). Hopelessness depression: A theory-based subtype of depression. Psychological Review, 96, 358–372.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abramson, L. Y., Seligman, M. E. P., & Teasdale, J. D. (1978). Learned helplessness in humans: Critique and reformulation. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 78, 40–74.Google Scholar
Beck, A. T., Ward, C. H., Mendelson, M., Mock, J, & Erbaugh, J. (1961). An inventory for measuring depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 41, 53–63.Google Scholar
Bentall, R. P. & Day, J. C. (1994). Psychological factors and neuroleptic therapy: Some neglected issues. International Reviews of Psychiatry, 6, 217–225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bentall, R. P., Jackson, H. F., & Pilgrim, D. (1988). Abandoning the concept of schizophrenia: Some implications of validity arguments for psychological research into psychotic phenomena. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 27, 303–324.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bentall, R. P., Kaney, S., & Bowen-Jones, K. (1995). Persecutory delusions and recall of threat-related, depression-related and neutral words. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 19, 331–343.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bentall, R. P., Kaney, S., & Dewey, M. E. (1991). Paranoia and social reasoning: An attribution theory analysis. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 30, 13–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bentall, R. P., Kinderman, P., & Kaney, S. (1994). The self, attributional processes and abnormal beliefs: Towards a model of persecutory delusions. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 32, 331–341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Candido, C. L. & Romney, D. M. (1990). Attributional style in paranoid vs depressed patients. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 63, 355–363.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chadwick, P. & Lowe, C. F. (1990). The measurement and modification of delusional beliefs. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 58, 225–232.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fenigstein, A. & Vanable, P. A. (1992). Paranoia and self-consciousness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62, 129–134.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Garety, P. A., Kuipers, L., Fowler, D., Chamberlain, F., & Dunn, G. (1994). Cognitive behavioural therapy for drug-resistant psychosis. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 67, 259–271.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hartman, L. M. & Cashman, F. E. (1983). Cognitive-behavioural and psychopharmocological treatment of delusional symptoms: A preliminary report. Behavioural Psychotherapy, 11, 50–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Higgins, E. T., Bond, R., Klein, R., & Strauman, T. J. (1986). Self-discrepancies and emotional vulnerability: How magnitude, accessibility and type of discrepancy influence affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41, 1–15.Google Scholar
Kaney, S. & Bentall, R. P. (1989). Persecutory delusions and attributional style. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 62, 191–198.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kaney, S. & Bentall, R. P. (1992). Persecutory delusions and the self-serving bias. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 180, 773–780.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kay, S. R., Fiszbein, A., & Opler, L. A. (1987). The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) for schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 13, 261–276.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kay, S. R., Opler, & Fiszbein, A. (1986). Positive and Negative Syndromes Scale (PANSS) rating manual. San Rafael, CA: Social and Behavioural Sciences Documents.Google Scholar
Kay, S. R., Opler, L. A., & Fiszbein, A. (1988). Reliability and validity of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale for schizophrenics. Psychiatry Research, 23, 276–286.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kinderman, P. (1994). Attentional bias, persecutory delusions and the self concept. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 67, 53–66.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kinderman, P. & Bentall, R. P. (1996a). Self-discrepancies and persecutory delusions: Evidence for a defensive model of paranoid ideation. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 106, 106–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kinderman, P. & Bentall, R. P. (1996b). A new measure of causal locus: The Internal, Personal and Situational Attributions Questionnaire. Personality and Individual Differences, 20, 261–264.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kinderman, P., Kaney, S., Morley, S., & Bentall, R P. (1992). Paranoia and the defensive attributional style: Deluded and depressed patients' attributions about their own attributions. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 65, 371–383.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kingdon, D., Turkington, D., & John, C. (1994). Cognitive behaviour therapy for schizophrenia: The amenability of delusions and hallucinations to reasoning. British Journal of Psychiatry, 164, 581–587.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lyon, H. M., Kaney, S., & Bentall, R. P. (1994). The defensive function of persecutory delusions: Evidence from attribution tasks. British Journal of Psychiatry, 164, 637–646.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mathers, D. C. & Ghodse, A.H. (1992). Cannabis and psychotic illness. British Journal of Psychiatry, 161, 648–653.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Persons, J. (1986). The advantages of studying psychological phenomena rather than psychiatric diagnoses. American Psychologist, 41, 1252–1260.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Peterson, C., Semmel, A., Von Baeyer, C., Abramson, L., Metalsky, G. I., & Seligman, M. E. P. (1982). The Attributional Style Questionnaire. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 3, 287–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rehm, L. P. (1988) Assessment of depression. In Bellack, A. S. & Hersen, M. (Eds.), Behavioral assessment: A practical handbook. 3rd Edition, (pp. 313–364). Oxford: Pergamon.Google Scholar
Stratton, P., Heard, D., Hanks, H. G. I., Munton, A. G., Brewin, C. R., & Davidson, C. (1986). Coding causal beliefs in natural discourse. British journal of Social Psychology, 25, 299–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tarrier, N., Beckett, R., Harwood, S., Baker, A., Yusupoff, L., & Ugarteburu, I. (1993). A trial of two cognitive-behavioural methods of treating drug-resident residual psychotic symptoms in schizophrenic patients I: Outcome. British Journal of Psychiatry, 162, 524–532.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tennen, H. & Herzenberger, S. (1985). Attributional Style Questionnaire. In Keyser, S. J. & Sweetland, R. C. (Eds.), Test critiques. Westport: Test Corporation of America.Google Scholar
Watts, F. N., Powell, E. G., & Austin, S. V. (1973). The modification of abnormal beliefs. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 46, 359–363.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
White, P. A. (1991). Ambiguity in the internal/external distinction in causal attribution. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 27, 259–270.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zullow, H. M., Oettingen, G., Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (1988). Pessimistic explanatory style in the historical record: CAVing LBJ, Presidential candidates, and East versus West Berlin. American Psychologist, 43, 673–682.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.