Investigating psychological processes in paranoia

Beck, Rosie Investigating psychological processes in paranoia. Doctor of Philosophy thesis, University of Liverpool.

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Abstract

Theory and research in the field of persecutory beliefs have identified a number of important psychological processes involved in clinical and non-clinical paranoia. This dissertation set out to investigate some of these processes. Firstly, the empirical evidence for the distinction of 'Poor Me' and 'Bad Me' paranoia (Trower & Chadwick, 1995) was reviewed systematically. Secondly, an empirical study with two phases aimed to investigate the contribution of key processes to paranoia in clinical and non-clinical samples. Investigated factors were: anxiety, depression, anger, attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance, deservedness, submissiveness, self-attacking, self-compassion and experiential avoidance. The review found the distinction of 'Poor Me' and 'Bad Me' paranoia to have some validity and clinical usefulness; however, as yet not all of the theoretical predictions have been borne out in the empirical literature. The importance of the role of deservedness and its measurement was discussed. A series of one-way ANCOVAs found levels of a number of processes to distinguish clinical and non-clinical paranoid groups. Hierarchical regression revealed experiential avoidance to be a significant predictor of paranoia in the final model. A concluding section synthesised these findings and consideration was given to future directions.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctor of Philosophy)
Additional Information:	Chapters 2 and 4 co-authored by Richard P. Bentall, William Sellwood and James Kelly Date: 2013-10 (completed)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	persecutory beliefs, paranoia, poor me, bad me, experiential avoidance
Subjects:	?? BF ?? ?? RC0321 ??
Divisions:	Faculty of Health and Life Sciences > Institute of Population Health
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	12 Feb 2014 10:56
Last Modified:	16 Dec 2022 04:40
DOI:	10.17638/00013913
Supervisors:	Bentall, Richard P Sellwood, William Kelly, James
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/13913