Psychiatry Investig.  2018 Aug;15(8):796-804. 10.30773/pi.2018.05.08.

Fragile Self and Malevolent Others: Biased Attribution Styles in Individuals at Ultra-High Risk for Psychosis

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Psychiatry, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Severance Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea. ansk@yuhs.ac
  • 2Section of Self, Affect and Neuroscience, Institute of Behavioral Science in Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
  • 3Department of Psychiatry, CHA Bundang Medical Center, CHA University, Seongnam, Republic of Korea.
  • 4Graduate Program in Cognitive Science, Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

Abstract


OBJECTIVE
Biased attribution styles of assigning hostile intention to innocent others and placing the blame were found in schizophrenia. Attribution styles in individuals at ultra-high risk (UHR) for psychosis, however, have been less studied especially for its association with various psychological factors. We investigated whether UHR individuals show increased hostility perception and blaming bias and explored the associations of these biased styles of attribution with the factor structure of multifaceted self-related psychological variables and neurocognitive performances.
METHODS
Fifty-four UHR individuals and 80 healthy controls were assessed by evaluating resilience, self-perception, self-esteem, and aberrant subjective experiences of schizotypy (physical anhedonia, social anhedonia, magical ideation, and perceptual aberration), basic symptoms, and carrying out a comprehensive neurocognitive test battery. Attribution styles were assessed using the Ambiguous Intentions Hostility Questionnaire.
RESULTS
UHR individuals, compared with normal controls, showed increased hostility perception and blaming bias. Factor analysis of self-related psychological variables and neurocognitive performances in the entire subject population showed a three-factor solution, which was designated as reflective self, pre-reflective self, and neurocognition. Multiple regression analysis in UHR individuals revealed that hostility perception bias was associated with reflective self and composite blame bias was associated with reflective and pre-reflective self.
CONCLUSION
This study supports the emergence of attribution biases in the putative "˜prodromal' phase of schizophrenia. The associations of biased attribution styles with multifaceted self-related psychological constructs suggest that psychosocial interventions for biased attribution styles in UHR individuals should focus not only on reflective self but also pre-reflective self-related psychological constructs.

Keyword

Attribution style; Ultra-high risk for psychosis; Reflective self; Pre-reflective self; Neurocognition

MeSH Terms

Anhedonia
Bias (Epidemiology)*
Hostility
Intention
Magic
Psychology
Psychotic Disorders*
Schizophrenia
Self Concept
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