The self and subclinical paranoia: a social psychological perspective on subclinical paranoia

Background: This thesis examines the relationship between the self and subclinical paranoia. There is a long history of research into the relationship between the self and paranoia, and correspondingly a considerable volume of empirical research devoted to the topic. In the main, this research shows evidence for an associative relationship between low self-esteem and paranoia. However, at present, there is only indirect evidence for a causal relationship between the two constructs. In addition, there are several limitations associated ith previous research.

Aims: The aim of the research presented in this thesis was to address these limitations, by designing studies that could allow for inferences of causality and in addition, go beyond operationalizing the self solely in terms of a stable self attitude that is open to conscious awareness. To this end, over a series of four studies we primed participants with negative self-referential information and subsequently measured state subclinical paranoia. These studies were designed with the aim of capturing both dynamic and implicit aspects to self-related processing and to allow for inferences of causality.

Findings: The findings of the single study in the first experimental chapter (Chapter 2) demonstrates that priming negative, compared to positive, self-evaluations leads to greater state subclinical paranoia, for participants who report either high self-report self-esteem or high self-esteem instability. The findings of Chapter 3 confirm these findings. Employing a different method of priming self-evaluations, in Study 1 of Chapter 3, we found that participants who were exposed to the priming of negative self-evaluations, showed evidence of greater state subclinical paranoia, than participants who were exposed to positive self-referential concepts. However, this effect held true only for participants who reported a moderate or high degree of social evaluative concerns. In Study 2 of this same chapter, we found that priming participants with negative social self-referential information also led to greater state subclinical paranoia (in comparison to the control condition), but only for participants who reported both high explicit self-esteem and high instability. Finally, in the third experimental chapter (Chapter 4) we found that an indirect threat to the self, reminders of mortality, also lead to an increase in state subclinical paranoia. 

Conclusion: Taken together these four studies demonstrate that situationally activating negative self or interpersonal self-concepts engenders an increase in state subclinical paranoia; a finding which supports the hypothesis that there is a causal relationship between negative self-concepts and paranoia. The findings also point to specific individual characteristics which likely serve as a vulnerability for paranoia; these include insecure, or unstable self-esteem and social apprehension anxiety.