title: Self-discrepancies, attentional bias and persecutory delusions.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Persecutory delusions appear to involve abnormal attentional biases to threat-related information, particularly information related to the self. The present study aimed to investigate attentional biases to different types of perceived threat and changes in self-perception in response to exposure to such threat-related material.
  
  
  METHODS
  Discrepancies between actual self, ideal self and perceived others' self-representations were assessed in three groups of participants; 13 people experiencing persecutory delusions, 11 people in a psychiatric comparison group, and 13 in a non-psychiatric comparison group. An adaptation of the emotional Stroop task was then used as an experimental manipulation of attentional bias to five different types of threat (sociotropic, autonomic, physical, ego threats from others, and self-directed ego threats). Self-discrepancies were then again assessed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Before administration of the emotional Stroop task, there were no significant differences between the groups in terms of their self-actual:self-ideal and self-actual:other-actual discrepancies. However, after the administration of the Stroop task, significant differences between the clinical groups were observed, mirroring significant reductions in self-actual:self-ideal discrepancies and significant increases in self-actual:other-actual discrepancies in the paranoid participants.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This paper is novel in repeating the assessment of self-discrepancies after the processing of threat-related information. These findings are consistent with Bentall, Kinderman, and Kaney's (1994) model of paranoid ideation and findings reported by Kinderman and Bentall (2000).
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Liverpool, UK. p.kinderman@liverpool.ac.uk
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kinderman
authors.forename: Sharon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Prince
authors.forename: Glenn
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Waller
authors.forename: Emmanuelle
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Peters
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000523:psychology; D003702:Delusions / Q000209:etiology; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012559:Schizophrenia; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012649:Self Concept; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014796:Visual Perception