doiSerbia

Structure of self-schemas in patients with paranoia

Mihić Ljiljana (Faculty of Philosophy, Department of Psychology, Novi Sad)
Novović Zdenka (Faculty of Philosophy, Department of Psychology, Novi Sad)
Dozois David J.A. (Western University, Department of Psychology, Canada)
Bentall Richard P. (University of Sheffield, Department of Psychology, United Kingdom)
Petrović Tanja (Faculty of Philosophy, Department of Psychology, Novi Sad)

Negative self-schemas have been implicated in both paranoia and depression. There is a lack of research on the structural characteristics of self-schemas, even though these characteristics might be stable risk factors. The present study explored organization of positive and negative self-schemas in currently non-depressed individuals with persistent delusional disorder (PD), currently depressed individuals with persistent delusional disorder (PDD), and nonpsychiatric controls (NC). Self-schema consolidation was measured via the Psychological Distance Scaling Task. Within the interpersonal domain, negative selfschemas were more densely organized in PDD compared to both PD and NC. Both patient groups had less interconnected positive interpersonal schemas than controls. Within the achievement domain, PDD demonstrated less consolidated positive achievement schemas than NC and greater interconnectedness among negative adjectives than PD. Central limitation includes a small sample size. The findings point to an existence of at least two self-schema organizations in paranoid individuals.

Keywords: self-structure, depression, paranoia, cognitive organization

Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 179006