Predictors and mediators of trait anger across the psychosis continuum: The role of attachment style, paranoia and social cognition.

Psychiatry Res

Division of Psychology and Mental Health, School of Health Sciences, University of Manchester, 2nd Floor, Zochonis Building, Brunswick Street, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom. Electronic address:

Published: March 2017

Anger in the context of psychosis has a significant impact on treatment outcomes and serious implications for risk management. Understanding mechanisms underlying anger will improve interventions and inform strategies for prevention. This study is the first to examine the relationships between anger and key theoretical drivers across different phases of the psychosis continuum. A battery including measures of theory of mind, attachment, hostile attribution bias, paranoia and anger was administered to 174 participants (14 ultra-high risk, 20 first-episode, 20 established psychosis, 120 non-clinical participants). We tested the model that insecure attachment, paranoia, impaired theory of mind and hostile attribution bias would predict trait anger using multiple regression. Attachment avoidance, paranoia and hostile attribution bias were significantly associated with anger but attachment anxiety and theory of mind were not. Mediation analysis showed that paranoia partially mediated the relationship between avoidant attachment and anger but hostile attribution bias did not. Findings emphasise the importance of interventions targeting paranoia to reduce anger and the potential of preventive strategies focused on attachment relationships in early life or adulthood to reduce adult paranoia and anger.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2017.01.007DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

hostile attribution
16
attribution bias
16
theory mind
12
anger
10
trait anger
8
psychosis continuum
8
paranoia anger
8
attachment
7
paranoia
7
predictors mediators
4

Similar Publications

Most psychiatric disorders are heterogeneous and are attributed to the synergistic action of a multitude of factors. It is generally accepted that psychiatric disorders are the outcome of interactions between genetic predisposition and environmental perturbations, which involve psychosocial stress, or alterations in the physiological state of the organism. A number of hypotheses have been presented on such environmental influences that may include direct insults such as injury, malnutrition and hostile living conditions, or indirect sequelae following infection from viruses such as influenza, arboviruses, enteroviruses and several herpesviruses, or the differential expression of human endogenous retroviruses.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cognitive biases have been studied in relation to schizophrenia and psychosis for over 50 years. Yet, the quality of the evidence linking cognitive biases and psychosis is not entirely clear. This umbrella-review examines the quality of the evidence and summarizes the effect sizes of the reasoning and interpretation cognitive biases studied in relation to psychotic characteristics (psychotic disorders, psychotic symptoms, psychotic-like experiences or psychosis risk).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Relational aggression, as a distinct form of aggressive behavior in social relationships, is associated with various physiological and psychological disorders. Although previous research has provided theoretical support for the connection between the Dark Triad (Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism) and relational aggression, the mediating factors between the two still require in-depth exploration. This study employed a cross-sectional research method to examine the mediating roles of relative deprivation and hostile attribution bias between the Dark Triad and relational aggression.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Were You Joking? Interpreting and Responding to Hostile Messages Among Spanish Adolescents.

Psychol Rep

December 2024

Departamento de Metodología de las Ciencias del Comportamiento, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Madrid, Spain.

This study aims to investigate whether the socio-emotional contextualization of envy influences the interpretation of and reaction to hostile messages on WhatsApp among Spanish adolescents. A total of 190 high school students participated. Participants read two stories containing a hostile message.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates how individuals infer mental states, focusing on the cognitive processes involved in attributing intentionality, particularly in violent offenders compared to non-offenders.
  • Using a measure called gaze transition entropy (GTE), it assesses how social cues influence the attribution of intent.
  • Results indicate that violent offenders exhibit lower entropy, suggesting they may struggle more with attentional processes and are more prone to hostile interpretations in ambiguous situations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!