The Influences of Three Dimensions of Persecutory Ideation on Causal Attribution, Depression and Anxiety in Patients with Schizophrenia

Abstract

This study investigated the factors influencing the three dimensions of persecutory ideation, frequency, conviction, and distress, in 48 patients with schizophrenia. Causal attribution, anxiety, and depression were assumed to influence persecutory ideation. Causal attribution was found to comprise the three dimensions of internality, stability, and globality. Additionally, the dimension of internality was classified into internal circumstances, external circumstances, and external people. The results of a hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that depression and globality influenced the frequency. Similarly, depression, and the internality (external-person) and globality dimensions influenced conviction. Depression and anxiety also influenced distress. These results suggest that the three dimensions of persecutory ideation were influenced by different factors.