An investigation of attributional style in first-episode psychosis

Objective. The present study investigated covert and overt attributional st yles in individuals experiencing a first episode of psychosis. It was hypot hesized that those individuals experiencing paranoia, as operationalized by higher scores on the suspiciousness item of the Brief Psychiatric Rating S cale (BPRS) would perform differently on both covert and overt measures of attributional style when compared to those individuals who scored lower on the BPRS suspiciousness item. Design and Methods. A cross-sectional design was used. The sample consisted of 62 participants (50 males and 12 females) from the Early Psychosis Prev ention and Intervention Centre. The Pragmatic Inference Task (PIT) was used to measure covert attributional style, whereas the Attributional Style Que stionnaire (parallel form; ASQpf) measured overt attributional style. The R osenberg Self-Esteem Questionnaire measured global self-esteem. Participant s' positive, negative, and depressive symptoms were assessed by means of th e BPRS, the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms, and the Beck Dep ression Inventory, respectively. Results. Regression analyses found that less suspiciousness (P =.02) and mo re depression (P =.02) predicted higher internal attributions for negative events scores on the ASQpf. There was a trend (P =.07) for more suspicious individuals to endorse the self-serving bias (SSB) on the PIT, even despite the SSB not being large enough to be considered defensive. Verbal IQ emerg ed as a significant predictor of covert attributional style (P =.04). Conclusions. The findings suggest that increasing suspiciousness does predi ct attributional style in the early stages of psychosis, although the relat ionship appears weaker than in reports with more chronic psychotic patient samples. Longitudinal research is needed to ascertain whether attributional style is a stable characteristic in psychosis, or whether it fluctuates be tween periods of remission and active psychosis.