title: Evaluation of magical thinking: validation of the Illusory Beliefs Inventory.
abstract: Magical thinking has been related to obsessive-compulsive disorder; yet, little research has examined this construct in other anxiety disorders. The Illusory Beliefs Inventory (IBI) is a recently developed measure of magical thinking. The aim of this study was to investigate the psychometric properties of this new measure and to determine if magical thinking accounts for pathological worry beyond the well-researched constructs of intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and perfectionism. A sample of 502 participants completed an online survey. Confirmatory factor analysis identified a three-factor solution for the IBI, and the measure had good internal consistency (α = .92), test-retest reliability (r = .94) and discriminant validity. Magical thinking, IU, and perfectionism all predicted pathological worry; however, magical thinking accounted for less than 1% of unique variance in worry, suggesting that it is not strongly related to worry. Further investigation regarding the validity and clinical utility of the IBI is required.
authors: a School of Psychology and Speech Pathology, Curtin University , Perth , Australia.
authors: Sarah
authors: S
authors: Shihata
authors: Sarah J
authors: SJ
authors: Egan
authors: Clare S
authors: CS
authors: Rees
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D010551:Personality; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D035501:Uncertainty; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Illusory Beliefs Inventory; intolerance of uncertainty; magical thinking; pathological worry; perfectionism