Attributional Bias

Self-affirmation theory proposes that people can respond to threats to the self by affirming alternative sources of self-integrity, resulting in greater openness to self-threatening information. The present research examines this at a group level by investigating whether a group affirmation (affirming an important group value) increases acceptance of threatening group information among sports teams and fans. In Study 1, athletes exhibited a group-serving attributional bias, which was eliminated by the group affirmation. In Study 2, the most highly identified fans exhibited the most bias in terms of their attributions, and this bias was eliminated by the group affirmation. These studies suggest that groups can serve as resources from which people can draw in response to threatening group events.

Superstitions are common, yet we have little understanding of the cognitive mechanisms that bring them about. This study used a laboratory‐based analogue for superstitious beliefs that involved people monitoring the relationship between undertaking an action (pressing a button) and an outcome occurring (a light illuminating). The task was arranged such that there was no objective contingency between pressing the button and the light illuminating – the light was just as likely to illuminate whether the button was pressed or not. Nevertheless, most people rated the causal relationship between the button press and the light illuminating to be moderately positive, demonstrating an illusion of causality. This study found that the magnitude of this illusion was predicted by people's level of endorsement of common superstitious beliefs (measured using a novel Superstitious Beliefs Questionnaire), but was not associated with mood variables or their self‐rated locus of control. This obse...

Background: There remains a paucity of research on control attribution and depression within Asian populations. This study examines: (1) Success/Failure condition as a moderator between depression and negative affect or shame, and (2) differences in control attribution between patients with depression and healthy controls in Singapore. Methods: Seventy one patients with depression and 71 healthy controls went through a digit-span memory task where they were randomized into either the Success or Failure condition. Participants in the Success condition had to memorize and recall 5-digit strings, while participants in the Failure condition did the same for 12-digit strings. They then completed self-report measures of negative affect, shame, and attribution of control. One-way ANCOVA was performed to examine task condition as a moderator of association between mental health status and post-task negative affect or shame. Test of simple effects was carried out on significant interactions. Sign test and Mann-Whitney U test were employed to investigate differences in attribution of control. Results: Mental health status and Success/Failure condition had significant effects on reported negative affect and shame. Healthy controls reported less post-task negative affect and shame in the Success than in the Failure condition while patients with depression reported similar levels of post-task negative affect and shame in both conditions. However, these differences were not significant in the test of simple effects. In addition, healthy controls felt a stronger sense of personal control in success than in failure and were more likely to blame external factors in failure than in success. Conversely, patients with depression were more inclined to credit external factors in success than in failure and ascribed greater personal control in failure than in success. Conclusion: The results suggest that successful conditions may not necessitate the reduction of negative affect in Asians with depression, indicating possible cultural variation in affective states as a result of control attribution and the importance of attending to these variations in designing psychological intervention for Asians. Further studies are required to gather more evidence on control attributions in different contexts and study other cognitive mechanisms related to depression in the Asian population.

and very high subgroups. Using bootstrapping, the mean proportion of the controls was 64% (90% confidence interval [CI]: 54%-74%) in the low cytokine cluster, 30% (90% CI: 20%-40%) in the high cytokine cluster, and 6% (90% CI: 5% 7%) in the very high cytokine cluster. In the schizophrenia group, the mean proportion was 57% (90% CI: 49% 65%) in the low cytokine cluster, was 37% (90% CI: 29% 45%) in the high cytokine cluster, and 6% (90% CI: 4% 8%) in the very high cytokine cluster. We found 90% of samples were classified into the same cluster >80% of bootstraps. Seven controls and 9 schizophrenia subjects could not be classified with at least 80% confidence. Conclusion: These results suggest a slightly larger proportion of the schizophrenia group is identified as having elevated cytokine levels compared to controls. Bootstrapping suggests there is some variance in these proportions dependent on the subsample. However, most of the samples appear to be adequately classed more than 80% of the time. Identifying and potentially removing the small number of samples which cannot be confidently clustered may stabilize future analyses comparing inflammation subsets. A computational investment, via bootstrapping, may improve the reliable identification of elevated cytokine patients with schizophrenia where sample heterogeneity is often an issue.

The feeling of control over actions and their external effects is known as Sense of Agency (SoAg). People usually have a distinctive SoAg for events caused by their own actions. However, if the agent is a child or an older person, this feeling of being responsible for the consequences of an action may differ from what an adult would feel. The idea would be that children and elderly may have a reduced SoAg since their frontal lobes are developing or have started to loose their efficiency. The aim of this study was to elucidate whether the SoAg changes across lifespan, using the Intentional Binding (i.e., the temporal attraction between a voluntary action and its sensory consequence) as implicit measure. Data show that children and elderly are characterized by a reduced SoAg as compared to adults. These findings provide a fundamental step in the characterization of SoAg dynamics throughout individuals' lifetime.

Every day we are confronted with a variety of events for which we clearly know the cause. We're hungry because we were in a hurry and missed breakfast. Sue realizes that John is mad at her because she forgot to meet him after work. But for other events the causes are less evident. Why does the house creak at night? Is it because of changes in the weather conditions, strong winds, or some other cause? Could it be a ghost? Why did the streetlight go off just as we walked by? Was it because of a burned out bulb, faulty wiring, or is it caused in some way by our physical presence? How do we explain the myriad of events that we witness on a daily basis, especially those for which no discernable cause is observed? Th is search for causality in everyday life, for both mundane and mysterious events, seems to be a universal cognitive process. How particular individuals reason about diff erent events and make reference to diff erent types of explanation seems to depend on

Every day we are confronted with a variety of events for which we clearly know the cause. We’re hungry because we were in a hurry and missed breakfast. Sue realizes that John is mad at her because she forgot to meet him after work. But for other events the causes are less evident. Why does the house creak at night? Is it because of changes in the weather conditions, strong winds, or some other cause? Could it be a ghost? Why did the streetlight go off just as we walked by? Was it because of a burned out bulb, faulty wiring, or is it caused in some way by our physical presence? How do we explain the myriad of events that we witness on a daily basis, especially those for which no discernable cause is observed? Th is search for causality in everyday life, for both mundane and mysterious events, seems to be a universal cognitive process. How particular individuals reason about diff erent events and make reference to diff erent types of explanation seems to depend on Abstract

Background: There remains a paucity of research on control attribution and depression within Asian populations. This study examines: (1) Success/Failure condition as a moderator between depression and negative affect or shame, and (2) differences in control attribution between patients with depression and healthy controls in Singapore. Methods: Seventy one patients with depression and 71 healthy controls went through a digit-span memory task where they were randomized into either the Success or Failure condition. Participants in the Success condition had to memorize and recall 5-digit strings, while participants in the Failure condition did the same for 12-digit strings. They then completed self-report measures of negative affect, shame, and attribution of control. One-way ANCOVA was performed to examine task condition as a moderator of association between mental health status and post-task negative affect or shame. Test of simple effects was carried out on significant interactions. Sign test and Mann-Whitney U test were employed to investigate differences in attribution of control. Results: Mental health status and Success/Failure condition had significant effects on reported negative affect and shame. Healthy controls reported less post-task negative affect and shame in the Success than in the Failure condition while patients with depression reported similar levels of post-task negative affect and shame in both conditions. However, these differences were not significant in the test of simple effects. In addition, healthy controls felt a stronger sense of personal control in success than in failure and were more likely to blame external factors in failure than in success. Conversely, patients with depression were more inclined to credit external factors in success than in failure and ascribed greater personal control in failure than in success. Conclusion: The results suggest that successful conditions may not necessitate the reduction of negative affect in Asians with depression, indicating possible cultural variation in affective states as a result of control attribution and the importance of attending to these variations in designing psychological intervention for Asians. Further studies are required to gather more evidence on control attributions in different contexts and study other cognitive mechanisms related to depression in the Asian population.

Attributional style is defined as the pervasive tendency to explain the cause of social actions in terms of oneself, or others, or the context of the event. While the clinical correlates of this aspect of social cognition have been widely researched, its links with relationship style and neuropsychological performance, although hypothesised, have received less attention. This study investigated whether attributional style is predicted by variance in either relationship style or neuropsychological performance in schizophrenia. We assessed attributional style (using the Internal, Personal and Situational Attributions Questionnaire [IPSAQ]), relationship style (using Bartholomew and Horowitz's Relationship Questionnaire), and neuropsychological function (using the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence, athe Wechsler Memory Test, and the Cambridge Automated Test Battery) in 73 stabilised outpatients with chronic schizophrenia and 78 controls matched for age and gender. 'Externalising bias' (attributing positive rather than negative events to oneself) was predicted by verbal ability in both patients and controls. 'Personalising bias' (attributing negative events to others rather than to situational factors) was predicted by higher secure relationship style ratings, but only in the patient group. This study highlights the importance of relationship style and neuropsychological performance for different aspects of attributional style in schizophrenia.

The aim of the present studies was to investigate the relationship between primary and secondary control and the use of superstitious strategies under conditions of uncertainty and stress. In the first study, 78 participants completed a chance-determined card-guessing task in which they were permitted to use a psychic's card selections instead of making their own card selections. Participants' use of a superstitious strategy (a psychic's selections) increased significantly with the perceived likelihood of failure, regardless of belief in psychic ability. A second study (N = 102) replicated these findings using a skill task. Overall, these data suggest that as the need to control outcomes becomes increasingly salient, the use of superstitious strategies may represent attempts at secondary control.

The illusion of control is the belief that our behavior produces an effect that is actually independent from it. This illusion is often at the core of superstitious and pseudoscientific thinking. Although recent research has proposed several evidence-based strategies that can be used to reduce the illusion, the majority of these experiments have involved positive illusions-that is, those in which the potential outcomes are desired (e.g., recovery from illness or earning points). By contrast, many real-life superstitions and pseudosciences are tied to negative illusions-that is, those in which the potential consequences are undesired. Examples are walking under a ladder, breaking a mirror, or sitting in row 13, all of which are supposed to generate bad luck. Thus, the question is whether the available evidence on how to reduce positive illusions would also apply to situations in which the outcomes are undesired. We conducted an experiment in which participants were exposed to undesired outcomes that occurred independently of their behavior. One strategy that has been shown to reduce positive illusions consists of warning people that the outcomes might have alternative causes, other than the participants' actions, and telling them that the best they can do to find out whether an alternative cause is at work is to act on only about 50 % of the trials. When we gave our participants this information in an experiment in which the outcomes were undesired, their illusion was enhanced rather than reduced, contrary to what happens when the outcome is desired. This suggests that the strategies that reduce positive illusions may work in just the opposite way when the outcome is undesired.

Background: Social cognitive deficits have a detrimental effect on social and role functioning at both early and late stages of psychotic illness. Aim: To assess the feasibility of social cognition and interaction training (SCIT) in first-episode psychosis (FEP). Methods: A total of 12 FEP participants were sequentially allocated to one of two SCIT groups, each of which met once per week for 10 consecutive weeks. Social cognition and functioning was assessed at baseline and postintervention. Results: SCIT was well-tolerated and retention was good. FEP participants improved significantly on measures of emotion recognition and social and occupational functioning. Conclusions: This study extends previous research by applying SCIT early in the course of illness, with the rationale that there is greater brain plasticity in this developmental phase of life, and greater scope to reduce or prevent disability. Results suggest SCIT is acceptable to and potentially helpful for this young population, thus a large randomized controlled trial is warranted.

found for functional capacity suggesting that both types of training can improve functional capacity similarly. Measures of planning and problem-solving showed a similar pattern with an advantage for planning and problem solving training on one measure. Discussion: Our results are in line with previous studies reporting an improvement of functional capacity when cognitive remediation is combined with other rehabilitation methods. However, a differential effect of targeting different cognitive functions on functional capacity remains to be established.

found for functional capacity suggesting that both types of training can improve functional capacity similarly. Measures of planning and problem-solving showed a similar pattern with an advantage for planning and problem solving training on one measure. Discussion: Our results are in line with previous studies reporting an improvement of functional capacity when cognitive remediation is combined with other rehabilitation methods. However, a differential effect of targeting different cognitive functions on functional capacity remains to be established.

Background: Social Cognition and Interaction Training (SCIT) is a manual-based group intervention designed to improve social cognition in schizophrenia. Initial studies conducted by the developers of SCIT suggest that the intervention has promise in ameliorating social cognitive dysfunction in both inpatients and outpatients. Aims: The current study is a preliminary evaluation of SCIT in community samples. Method: An uncontrolled, pre-post design was used in this initial feasibility study. A collaborative research-clinical approach was employed to enable research evaluation while also meeting the administrative goals of participating clinics, and working within the constraints of real-world clinical practice. Transportability, acceptability, and feasibility of SCIT were evaluated in terms of pre- and post-treatment evaluations, client attendance data (N = 50), and clinic administrators’ decisions about whether to integrate SCIT into regular programming. Social-cognitive outcome meas...

Magical thinking and magical beliefs We find it quite natural that our thoughts or words can produce effects in our mental world, or in the outer world: we can think of moving our hand and do it, we can ask for a favour and be granted it. What we would find surprising is if our thoughts, ...

This article discusses the effectiveness of a cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) group for clients with a first episode of psychosis, who were also experiencing comorbid symptoms of anxiety. Clients of 18-35 years of age who reported anxiety symptoms, either as a direct or indirect result of psychotic symptoms, were invited to attend a 12-week CBT-based group. The effectiveness of the intervention was evaluated at screening and 3-month follow-up with the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) (Lovibond and Lovibond, 2004). The results showed a statistically significant improvement in symptoms (depression, p=0.06; anxiety, p=0.05; stress, p=.014), sustainable at 3-month follow-up. The authors concluded that a CBT group for people with a first episode of psychosis that focuses on the management of anxiety can be an effective and viable means of reducing levels of anxiety and associated stress and depression. This model is recommended for use by community mental health teams.

found for functional capacity suggesting that both types of training can improve functional capacity similarly. Measures of planning and problem-solving showed a similar pattern with an advantage for planning and problem solving training on one measure. Discussion: Our results are in line with previous studies reporting an improvement of functional capacity when cognitive remediation is combined with other rehabilitation methods. However, a differential effect of targeting different cognitive functions on functional capacity remains to be established.

The daily co-occurrence of change in sleep characteristics and psychopathology was examined in six individuals with schizophrenia and seven healthy controls using a prospective assessment of rest-activity patterns conducted in the person's home for up to 28 days. The results provide preliminary evidence that a change in sleep-wake timing is followed by a change in symptom severity.

Attributional style is defined as the pervasive tendency to explain the cause of social actions in terms of oneself, or others, or the context of the event. While the clinical correlates of this aspect of social cognition have been widely researched, its links with relationship style and neuropsychological performance, although hypothesised, have received less attention. This study investigated whether attributional style is predicted by variance in either relationship style or neuropsychological performance in schizophrenia. We assessed attributional style (using the Internal, Personal and Situational Attributions Questionnaire [IPSAQ]), relationship style (using Bartholomew and Horowitz's Relationship Questionnaire), and neuropsychological function (using the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence, the Wechsler Memory Test, and the Cambridge Automated Test Battery) in 73 stabilised outpatients with chronic schizophrenia and 78 controls matched for age and gender. 'Externalising bias' (attributing positive rather than negative events to oneself) was predicted by verbal ability in both patients and controls. 'Personalising bias' (attributing negative events to others rather than to situational factors) was predicted by higher secure relationship style ratings, but only in the patient group. This study highlights the importance of relationship style and neuropsychological performance for different aspects of attributional style in schizophrenia.

The illusion of control can be defined as the erroneous belief that one’s actions cause a specific outcome, whereas sense of agency refers to the subjective feeling of authorship over one’s actions. In the present study we investigated the development of illusory control and sense of agency. A novel card-guessing game was developed in which 7- to-12-year old children (Study 1) and adults (Study 2) were required to select a card, and we manipulated the congruence of the outcome with their initial choice (i.e. congruent or incongruent) and the valence of the outcome that was presented (i.e. positive or negative). We found that illusory control and the self-attribution bias (i.e. the bias to attribute positive outcomes to oneself) in the card guessing game decreased, as children get older. In contrast, for both children and adults sense of agency in the task was similarly affected by outcome congruency, suggesting that the ability to relate predicted to observed action outcomes reflects a basic mechanism that helps people to sustain a sense of agency. Thus, while the illusion of control decreases as we get older, the experience of agency as a function of outcome congruency seems to be more stable across development.

Based on the German model of the prodromal phase, the evolution of symptoms will be analysed with special emphasis on the influence of psychotherapeutic interventions. Moreover, the interactions between life events, experience and vulnerability will be qualitatively analysed in each single case;

Aims: It has been suggested that resilience may be a protective factor with respect to mental illness. This may be an important factor for those who are vulnerable to psychiatric illness. Thus, the aims of this paper were to compare levels of resilience between individuals at clinical high risk (CHR) for psychosis and healthy controls, and to examine associations between resilience and clinical measures, functioning and trauma of CHR participants.

It has been suggested that an exaggerated self-serving bias may underlie the formation of paranoia. One goal of the present study was to explore whether an abnormality of attributional style is confined to patients with persecutory delusions or extends to currently non-deluded patients. A second goal was to test whether paranoid patients show an external-personal rather than an external-situational attributional style for blame. An attributional styles questionnaire was administered to psychiatric patients diagnosed with schizophrenia (n = 35), depression (n = 18), and anxiety disorders (n = 34), as well as a healthy control group (n = 28). For each event (positive or negative outcome) participants were asked to write down what may have led to this event, and then to endorse the degree to which this event was caused by others/circumstances or themselves. Assessment of the Likert scale ratings demonstrated that while healthy subjects displayed a significant self-serving bias, currently paranoid and non-paranoid schizophrenia patients performed intermediately between healthy participants and depressed patients. Analysis of coded verbal statements indicated that irrespective of event type (positive, negative) patients with persecutory delusions had an even-handed attribution bias, whereas all other groups predominantly regarded themselves as causal. The latter finding indicates that acute paranoia may be associated with a decreased locus of internal control, which may promote the occurrence of certain paranoid beliefs (e.g., feelings of alien control and passivity experiences, respectively).

Background: Paranoid delusions are associated with abnormal attributions and abnormal beliefs about the self. Some researchers have also reported an association between paranoid beliefs and abnormal attachment representations. Sampling and Methods: Perceptions of relationships with the family of origin were measured in 14 currently ill paranoid patients, 9 remitted paranoid patients and 15 healthy controls, using two methods: the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI), and the Relationship with Family of Origin Scale (REFAMOS), an interviewbased assessment. Results and Conclusions: On the PBI, both currently ill and remitted patients reported low parental care and overprotectiveness during childhood. Similar negative accounts of relationships with parents during the 16-20 years age period, and also at the time of assessment, were elicited from both the ill and remitted patients on the REFAMOS. These findings might reflect the influence of illness on patients' perceptions of their parents. However, the fact that the remitted patients did not differ from the currently ill patients raises the possi-bility that dysfunctional relationships are a common feature of the history of paranoid patients, perhaps contributing to the development of paranoid thinking.

Introduction. There is evidence of associations between social functioning and theory of mind performance and between social functioning and negative symptoms in chronic psychosis. This study investigates these associations in those with first episode psychosis who are unaffected by factors related to long-term mental illness. Our first hypothesis states that there is an association between theory of mind and social functioning. The second hypothesis states that there is no association between symptoms of psychosis and social functioning. Methods. Fifty-two individuals with first episode psychosis were assessed for social functioning, theory of mind ability (using the Hinting test with verbal stimuli and the Visual Cartoon test with pictorial stimuli), and symptoms of psychosis. Multivariable logistic regression was used to examine associations. Results. Social functioning and theory of mind were associated when measured by the Hinting test (OR 1.70, 95% CI 1.08, 2.66), but not with the Visual Cartoon test (ToM jokes OR 0.61, 95% CI 0.15, 2.53). There was no association between social functioning and symptoms (psychotic symptoms; OR 0.95, 95% CI 0.81, 1.12; selected negative symptoms; OR 1.33, 95% CI 0.78, 2.25). Conclusions. Theory of mind assessed by verbal stimuli is associated with social functioning in a population with first episode psychosis. These findings may be related to language disorders in psychosis.

Attributional style is defined as the pervasive tendency to explain the cause of social actions in terms of oneself, or others, or the context of the event. While the clinical correlates of this aspect of social cognition have been widely researched, its links with relationship style and neuropsychological performance, although hypothesised, have received less attention. This study investigated whether attributional style is predicted by variance in either relationship style or neuropsychological performance in schizophrenia. We assessed attributional style (using the Internal, Personal and Situational Attributions Questionnaire [IPSAQ]), relationship style (using Bartholomew and Horowitz's Relationship Questionnaire), and neuropsychological function (using the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence, athe Wechsler Memory Test, and the Cambridge Automated Test Battery) in 73 stabilised outpatients with chronic schizophrenia and 78 controls matched for age and gender. 'Externalising bias' (attributing positive rather than negative events to oneself) was predicted by verbal ability in both patients and controls. 'Personalising bias' (attributing negative events to others rather than to situational factors) was predicted by higher secure relationship style ratings, but only in the patient group. This study highlights the importance of relationship style and neuropsychological performance for different aspects of attributional style in schizophrenia.

An influential model of persecutory delusions put forward by Bentall and colleagues hypothesizes that persecutory-deluded patients avoid the activation of negative self-beliefs by making externalising, personalising attributions for negative events. The first study reported here used a new instrument for the measurement of persecutory ideation, the Paranoid, Persecutory and Delusion-Proneness Questionnaire, to investigate whether attributional biases are associated with subclinical persecutory ideation. The second study extended this investigation by re-examining associations between attributional biases and persecutory delusions. Both studies used the Internal, Personal and Situational Attributions Questionnaire to measure attributional style. No evidence was found for a connection between attributional biases and subclinical persecutory ideation. Furthermore, there was no support for an association between persecutory delusions and an externalising bias, and only marginal support for the hypothesized relationship between persecutory delusions and a personalising bias. These results suggest that the putative link between persecutory ideation and attributional biases only manifests (if at all) when persecutory ideation is of delusional intensity, and that it is confined to a personalising bias. D