Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
School of Psychological Sciences, Institute of Psychology, Health and Society, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.
Schizophr Res. 2018 Mar;193:77-82. doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2017.06.057. Epub 2017 Jul 18.
Aberrant attributional styles are counted to a set of circumscribed cognitive biases that are implicated in the pathogenesis of (paranoid) psychosis. However, evidence for a specific profile (e.g., an exaggerated self-serving bias, other-blaming bias) has become equivocal over the years. More recently, one-sided (monocausal) attributions have been reported in patients with psychosis.
We compared a large sample of patients with diagnosed schizophrenia (n=145) to nonclinical controls (n=30) on a revised version of the Internal, Personal and Situational Attributions Questionnaire (IPSAQ-R). In this task, participants have to assign probability estimates to each of three potential causes (i.e., myself, others, circumstances) for a specific (negative or positive) event.
Participants with schizophrenia displayed an abolished self-serving bias and showed a significant preference for one-sided/monocausal attributions, which was neither correlated with jumping to conclusions nor overconfidence in errors. School education correlated with less monocausal attributions. We did not find any congruence between attributional styles with core delusional ideas.
Our study corroborates earlier investigations showing that monocausal attributions may play a role in the pathogenesis of psychosis; this bias unlikely represents an epiphenomenon of established biases. Unexpectedly, attributional styles (e.g., external-blaming) did not shape delusional contents. The true prevalence of monocausal attributions in psychosis is perhaps underestimated in the study, as groups were equated on school education, which was correlated with monocausal attributions.
归因风格异常被认为是一系列受限的认知偏差的一种，这些偏差与（偏执型）精神病的发病机制有关。然而，多年来，关于特定的模式（例如，夸大的自我服务偏差、责备他人偏差）的证据变得模棱两可。最近，有报道称精神病患者存在片面（单因）归因。
我们在经过修订的内部、个人和情境归因问卷（IPSAQ-R）上比较了一组大样本的诊断为精神分裂症的患者（n=145）和非临床对照组（n=30）。在这个任务中，参与者必须为特定的（负面或正面）事件为三个潜在原因（即自己、他人、情况）分配概率估计。
精神分裂症患者表现出自利偏差减弱，并表现出明显的单一/单因归因偏好，这与草率结论或错误过度自信无关。学校教育与较少的单一归因有关。我们没有发现归因风格与核心妄想观念之间存在任何一致性。
我们的研究证实了早期的研究结果，即单一归因可能在精神病的发病机制中起作用；这种偏差不太可能是既定偏差的表象。出乎意料的是，归因风格（例如，责备他人）并没有塑造妄想内容。由于对学校教育进行了分组，而学校教育与单一归因有关，因此该研究可能低估了精神病中单一归因的真实普遍性。
