Attributional biases in paranoia: The development and validation of the Achievement and Relationships Attributions Task (ARAT)

Abstract

Introduction. Attributional biases, in particular a tendency to blame other people for negative events, have been reported among people with persecutory delusions and in people in the general population with subclinical paranoia. However, existing attribution measures have some shortcomings. The present study therefore describes the development and validation of a new attribution measure: the Achievement and Relationships Attributions Task (ARAT). The ARAT assesses attributional style in a range of everyday life situations related to achievement and interpersonal events, and provides a context for attributions. Each scenario has three possible causes embedded within it: internal, personal-external, and situational-external.

Methods. Three hundred and fifteen healthy volunteers completed the ARAT and measures of paranoia and depression.

Results. A tendency to blame other people rather than themselves was associated with high trait paranoia and multidimensional aspects of paranoid beliefs. Depression was associated with a decreased tendency to internalise success.

Conclusions. The ARAT is a valid measure of attributional style in relation to paranoid ideation in a nonclinical population and has good interrater reliability.

Keywords:

• Attributional biases
• Paranoia
• Persecutory delusions
• Psychosis

Notes

¹The ARAT and scoring instructions are available from the first author.