The moderating effects of perceived intentionality: exploring the relationships between ideas of reference, paranoia and social anxiety in schizotypy

Abstract

Introduction Ideas of reference (IOR), paranoia, and social anxiety are features of schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, which appear to be conceptually related; however, the precise nature of these relationships is unclear. These relationships may be partially explained by perceived intentionality (PI), a social-cognitive bias for perceiving other people’s actions during unpleasant situations as being directed at oneself in an intentionally malicious manner. Our primary aim was to examine the moderating role of PI on the relationships between IOR and paranoia, and between IOR and social anxiety amongst individuals with psychometrically-defined schizotypy. Methods We assessed IOR, paranoia, and social anxiety amongst individuals with psychometrically-defined schizotypy (n = 44) and controls (n = 36), and examined the moderating effects of PI within each group. Results As hypothesized, PI moderated the relationship between IOR and paranoia such that higher PI predicted higher levels of paranoia as IOR increased. Additionally, we found that PI moderated the relationship between IOR and social anxiety such that higher PI predicted lower levels of social anxiety as IOR increased. Discussion Theoretical and practical implications are discussed including the potential for assessing PI as a proxy for paranoia when clinicians suspect a client is underreporting paranoia due to positive impression management.

Mild-to-moderate schizotypal traits relate to physiological arousal from social stress

“…Referential thinking is when casual external events, such as social encounters, are incorrectly interpreted as having an unusual meaning. Referential thinking could increase judgemental biases during social interaction and social anxiety (Meyer & Lenzenweger, 2009;Morrison & Cohen, 2014). Interpersonal schizotypal traits, such as having no close friends, relate to poor recognition of non-verbal cues during social interaction (Shean, Bell, & Cameron, 2007), and so related to greater perceived social threat.…”

Towards a Schizotypy Core: Convergence and Divergence of Two Empirically-Derived Self-Report Measures from a Nonclinical Sample

“…However, its nonspecific nature limits its specificity as an indicator of validity regarding schizotypy. Moreover, the SPQ and SPQ-BR tap neuroticism-related constructs that are not included in the WSS or WSS-SF, namely social anxiety and suspiciousness -constructs that are important to schizophrenia-spectrum disorders (Blanchard, Mueser & Bellack, 1998;Morrison & Cohen, 2014). Including items measuring these constructs within the SPQ Interpersonal/negative factor likely served to increase convergence between the SPQ Interpersonal/negative scales and neuroticism.…”

Anxiety and cognitive-related effects of Δ 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) are differentially mediated through distinct GSK-3 vs. Akt-mTOR pathways in the nucleus accumbens of male rats

“…However, Δ 9 -tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the primary psychoactive compound in cannabis, is associated with psychotomimetic side effects and an increased risk of developing neuropsychiatric disorders in some individuals. Schizophrenia is characterized by disturbances in emotional salience attribution (Katthagen et al, 2016;Palaniyappan et al, 2013), neurocognitive sensory filtering (Wynn et al, 2004), memory abnormalities (Behrendt, 2016;Paz-Alonso et al, 2013) and heightened anxiety and paranoia (Buonocore et al, 2018;Morrison and Cohen, 2014). THC can induce these effects via its modulatory influence on mesocorticolimbic dopamine (DA) transmission and associated molecular signalling pathways (Bossong et al, 2015;Renard et al, 2017a,b).…”