School of Psychology, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.
Illawarra Health & Medical Research Institute, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.
Psych J. 2022 Jun;11(3):296-309. doi: 10.1002/pchj.528. Epub 2022 Feb 15.
Cognitive interpretations of daily events may differ in people from the general population who hold unusual beliefs. It is also important to understand whether different belief profiles exist to appreciate which patterns of beliefs are less psychologically healthy. Cluster analysis was used to form unusual belief profiles in a general population sample (n = 578; M = 22 years, SD = 6.98; 80% female) across paranoid, paranormal, and magical ideation beliefs, and we assessed whether they differed in attribution style and metacognitive beliefs about worry. Four clusters were formed: low on all measures (low all); high on all measures (high all); comparably higher on paranormal beliefs (paranormal group); and comparably higher on paranoid beliefs (paranoid group). For total Metacognitions Questionnaire-30, the high all and high paranoid clusters did not differ, and both clusters scored higher than the high paranormal group, who all scored higher than the low all cluster. For attributional styles (Attributional Styles Questionnaire), lower scores on internal positive attribution were found for the high all and high paranoid clusters compared to the low all and high paranormal clusters. The high paranormal cluster had higher scores than the high paranoid cluster on self-serving bias. Differences in attributional style appeared to be driven by mental health diagnosis. Our results suggest different profiles of unusual beliefs are detectable in the general population that differ in their metacognitive beliefs and perceived causation of events in their environment. Future studies investigating delusional proneness need to consider multiple unusual beliefs as well as assessing mood state and distress.
在具有不同寻常信念的普通人群中，对日常事件的认知解释可能存在差异。了解是否存在不同的信仰模式也很重要，以便了解哪些信仰模式在心理上不太健康。聚类分析用于在普通人群样本（n = 578；M = 22 岁，SD = 6.98；80%为女性）中形成不同寻常的信念模式，涉及偏执、超自然和神奇观念信仰，并评估他们在归因风格和对担忧的元认知信念上是否存在差异。形成了四个聚类：所有指标均较低（低全）；所有指标均较高（高全）；超自然信仰相对较高（超自然组）；偏执观念信仰相对较高（偏执组）。对于总认知思维问卷-30，高全和高偏执聚类之间没有差异，且两个聚类的得分均高于高超自然聚类，而高超自然聚类的得分均高于低全聚类。对于归因风格（归因风格问卷），与低全和高超自然聚类相比，高全和高偏执聚类的内部积极归因得分较低。高超自然聚类的自利偏差得分高于高偏执聚类。归因风格的差异似乎是由心理健康诊断驱动的。我们的研究结果表明，在普通人群中可以检测到不同的异常信念模式，它们在元认知信念和对环境中事件的感知因果关系方面存在差异。未来研究需要考虑多种异常信念，以及评估情绪状态和痛苦。
