Benjamin Buck1, Julia Browne2, Emily C Gagen3, David L Penn4,5. 1. Behavioral Research in Technology and Engineering (BRiTE) Center, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA. 2. Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA. 3. Research Service, Providence VA Medical Center, Providence, RI, USA. 4. Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. 5. School of Behavioural and Health Sciences, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Abstract
Background: Social cognition is often aberrant or impaired in psychotic disorders and related to functional outcomes. In particular, one core social cognitive bias - hostile attribution bias - is proposed to be implicated in paranoia, anxiety, mood disturbances and interpersonal conflict outcomes. However, questions remain about this domain's specificity to psychosis and its relationship to general functional outcomes.Aims: The present paper offers a descriptive and critical review of the literature on hostile attribution bias in psychotic disorders, in order to examine (1) its impact on persecutory symptoms in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, (2) impact on other related psychopathology among those experiencing psychosis and (3) relationship to functioning. Methods: Twenty-eight studies included in this review after parallel literature searches of PsycINFO and PubMed. Results: Evidence from these studies highlighted that hostile attribution bias is elevated in schizophrenia, and that it is related to anxiety, depression and interpersonal conflict outcomes. Conclusion: While results suggest that hostile attributions are elevated in schizophrenia and associated with symptoms and functioning, there exist numerous persisting questions in the study of this area, including identifying which measures are most effective and determining how it presents: as a state or trait-like characteristic, via dual processes, and its situational variation.
Background: Social cognition is often aberrant or impaired in psychotic disorders and related to functional outcomes. In particular, one core social cognitive bias - hostile attribution bias - is proposed to be implicated in paranoia, anxiety, mood disturbances and interpersonal conflict outcomes. However, questions remain about this domain's specificity to psychosis and its relationship to general functional outcomes.Aims: The present paper offers a descriptive and critical review of the literature on hostile attribution bias in psychotic disorders, in order to examine (1) its impact on persecutory symptoms in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, (2) impact on other related psychopathology among those experiencing psychosis and (3) relationship to functioning. Methods: Twenty-eight studies included in this review after parallel literature searches of PsycINFO and PubMed. Results: Evidence from these studies highlighted that hostile attribution bias is elevated in schizophrenia, and that it is related to anxiety, depression and interpersonal conflict outcomes. Conclusion: While results suggest that hostile attributions are elevated in schizophrenia and associated with symptoms and functioning, there exist numerous persisting questions in the study of this area, including identifying which measures are most effective and determining how it presents: as a state or trait-like characteristic, via dual processes, and its situational variation.
Entities:
Keywords:
Schizophrenia; attributional style; hostile attribution bias; social cognition