Safety Behaviours, Rumination and Trait Paranoia in a Non-Clinical Sample

Abstract

Cognitive behavioural models of persecutory delusions hypothesise that paranoid threat beliefs are maintained by cognitive and behavioural processes which promote confirmatory information and reduce disconfirmatory information. Such mechanisms include engagement with safety behaviours and iterative, self-focused cognitive processes such as worry and rumination. This paper reports a study investigating the relationship between safety behaviours, rumination and paranoia in a non-clinical sample (N = 133). A single group cross-sectional design was utilised. Strong correlations between these factors were identified, and were not accounted for by negative affect. Hierarchical multiple regression revealed that engagement in safety behaviours and rumination explained 49% of the variance of paranoia when combined with age, gender and negative affect. This paper provides some evidence for the role of safety behaviours and rumination in the presence of paranoid threat beliefs. Further research is needed to explore the causal relationship between these variables, and their explanatory power within a clinical sample. If replicated, these findings suggest that mental health practitioners would be wise to consider these variables in the assessment, formulation and treatment of paranoia.