SELF-DISCREPANCIES AND PERSECUTORY DELUSIONS - EVIDENCE FOR A MODEL OF PARANOID IDEATION

The self-discrepancies of paranoid patients, depressed patients, and n onpatients were examined using a modified version of Higgins's Selves Questionnaire (E. T. Higgins, 1987). Nonpatients showed high consisten cies between all domains of the self-concept, whereas depressed patien ts showed marked self-discrepancies. Paranoid patients alone displayed a high degree of consistency between self-perceptions and self-guides together with discrepancies between self-perceptions and the believed perceptions of parents about the self Paranoid patients also believed that their parents had more negative views of them than did other par ticipants. These findings are consistent with R. P. Bentall, P. Kinder man, and S. Kaney's (1994) model, which assumes that persecutory delus ions are a product of attributional processes serving to maintain a po sitive explicit self-concept.