Abstract

VAZQUEZ, Carmelo; SANCHEZ, Alvaro  and  PROVENCIO, María. Aproximaciones cognitivas a la investigación sobre el delirio persecutorio. Aná. Psicológica [online]. 2009, vol.27, n.2, pp.213-231. ISSN 0870-8231.

Persecutory delusion is a symptom present in different clinical conditions. In recents years, there has been a large body of research focused on the study of persecutory delusion, from a symptom-approach perspective, analyzing a number of psychological processes (cognitive, emotional, etc) associated to this type of delusional beliefs. In the present paper we present a review of empirical research that has explored the role of cognitive mechanisms in persecutory delusion. We review the empirical evidence showing cognitive biases in several domains of functioning in people with persecutory beliefs: selective attention, memory for emotional material, probabilistic and inferential reasoning processes (i.e. causal attributions), and general cognitive schemas. We finally discuss the role of these biases in the onset and maintenance of persecutory beliefs.

Keywords : Attributions; Cognition; Delusion; Explanatory models; Paranoia.

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