title: Attributional style in schizophrenia: an investigation in outpatients with and without persecutory delusions.
abstract: The attributional style of outpatients with schizophrenia with and without persecutory delusions was investigated. Thirty individuals with schizophrenia were divided into persecutory-deluded and non-persecutory-deluded groups based on a score of 5 or higher on the suspiciousness item from the Expanded Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS-E). The two resulting groups, and a nonclinical control group, were administered a battery of attributional measures, and their attributional responses were coded by both the subjects themselves and a pair of independent raters. The results showed evidence of a self-serving bias for subjects with persecutory delusions; however, this bias was not unique to those with persecutory delusions, and it disappeared when independent raters evaluated subjects' causal statements on a reliable measure of attributional style. Subjects with persecutory delusions tended to show a stronger bias toward blaming others rather than situations for negative outcomes, and there was a linear association between persecutory ideation and a self-serving attributional style. Finally, there were significant discrepancies between the attributional ratings of the persecutory-deluded subjects and those of independent judges. Implications for future research are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, USA.
authors.forename: James A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: David L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Penn
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D003702:Delusions / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012563:Schizophrenia, Paranoid / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology