Influence of metacognitive variables on paranoid ideation

Abstract

Based on the Self-Regulatory Executive Function (S-REF) model, the aim of the present correlational study is to investigate whether metacognitive variables have any influence on paranoid ideation in non-clinical subjects. For this purpose, a battery of tests was administered to 148 participants in an attempt to identify the type of metacognitive beliefs that characterized them and to measure their levels of paranoid ideation and trait anxiety. The results show that, once the subject’s level of anxiety is controlled, loss of cognitive confidence is the only metacognitive variable that predicts subjects’ scores in paranoid ideation. Without this statistical control of trait anxiety, the regression equation would include two more metacognitive factors related to uncontrollability and danger of thoughts and positive beliefs about worry. These results are discussed in the light of recent contributions supporting the extension of models already consolidated in the field of emotional disorders, as the S-REF model, to that of psychotic symptoms.