An empirical study of defensive avoidance in paranoia.
BACKGROUND
There is controversy as to whether psychological defensive avoidance is associated with paranoia.


OBJECTIVE
To elucidate whether "Poor-me" paranoid patients, who believe that the persecution they perceive is undeserved, show more prominent avoidance of negative thoughts about themselves than healthy and clinical controls.


METHODS
The act of avoidance of aversive mental contents was assessed in 27 healthy controls and 48 patients with poor-me, bad-me (perceived to be deserved) or no paranoia. Defensive avoidance was assessed via established questionnaires, a novel task based on self-discrepancy theory and research-clinician ratings.


RESULTS
Participants in all groups showed substantial levels of verbal defensive avoidance. Paranoia was associated with reduced self-reported tolerance of negative mental contents (high Experiential Avoidance, EA). Contrary to our hypotheses, poor-me and bad-me patients showed similar EA. All participant groups showed similar levels of verbal defensive avoidance.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings do not support an association of psychological avoidance with paranoia.
University of Manchester, andInstitute of Neurology,University College London,UK.
Michael
M
Moutoussis
University of Manchester,UK.
Wael
W
El-Deredy
University of Liverpool,UK.
Richard P
RP
Bentall
D000328:Adult; D001362:Avoidance Learning; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D010259:Paranoid Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D012563:Schizophrenia, Paranoid / Q000523:psychology; D012649:Self Concept; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
self-discrepancies