How does attachment imagery for paranoia work? Cognitive fusion and beliefs about self and others mediate the impact on paranoia and anxiety
How does attachment imagery for paranoia work? Cognitive fusion and beliefs about self and others mediate the impact on paranoia and anxiety
Objectives: paranoia describes unfounded and distressing interpersonal threat beliefs. Secure attachment imagery has been shown to attenuate paranoia and anxiety in non-clinical and clinical groups, but little is known about the differential effects of anxious and avoidant imagery or mechanisms of change. In this study, we tested the impact of secure, anxious, and avoidant attachment imagery on paranoia, anxiety, and help-seeking intentions. We also examined hypothesized mechanisms of change, specifically whether cognitive fusion and negative self- and other-beliefs mediate these relationships.
Design: this study utilized an experimental, cross-sectional design. Methods: A large (N = 303), international general population sample with high levels of non-clinical paranoia completed a series of measures before and after engaging in secure, anxious, or avoidant imagery.
Results: relative to anxious and avoidant attachment imagery, secure attachment imagery reduced paranoia and anxiety and increased help-seeking intentions. Cognitive fusion and negative self- and other-beliefs mediated the impact of attachment imagery on paranoia and anxiety, but not help-seeking.
Conclusions: in line with attachment and cognitive theory, secure attachment imagery is effective in reducing paranoia and anxiety and works by reducing cognitive fusion and negative self- and other-beliefs. These novel findings suggest that the secure imagery task could be incorporated into cognitive and behavioural therapies to reduce distressing interpersonal threat beliefs and associated negative affect, and increase help-seeking intentions.
Practitioner points: when working with people experiencing paranoia, secure attachment imagery may be effective in reducing state paranoia and anxiety and improving help-seeking intentions. Attachment imagery works by influencing beliefs about self and others, and the degree to which people are fused with their beliefs. In clinical practice, the rationale for the imagery task fits well with psychological models of paranoia and the secure imagery task can be introduced as a way to cope when struggling with distressing beliefs about self and others, and feeling overwhelmed by these fears.
Attachment, Mental imagery, anxiety, attachment imagery, attachment priming, attachment theory, beliefs about self and others, cognitive fusion, help-seeking, paranoia, persecutory delusions, security priming
973-993
Sood, Monica
185fb97e-a111-45e1-bbe8-d865d301ef9f
Carnelley, Katherine
02a55020-a0bc-480e-a0ff-c8fe56ee9c36
Newman-Taylor, Katherine
e090b9da-6ede-45d5-8a56-2e86c2dafef7
Sood, Monica
185fb97e-a111-45e1-bbe8-d865d301ef9f
Carnelley, Katherine
02a55020-a0bc-480e-a0ff-c8fe56ee9c36
Newman-Taylor, Katherine
e090b9da-6ede-45d5-8a56-2e86c2dafef7
Sood, Monica, Carnelley, Katherine and Newman-Taylor, Katherine
(2021)
How does attachment imagery for paranoia work? Cognitive fusion and beliefs about self and others mediate the impact on paranoia and anxiety.
Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 94 (4), .
(doi:10.1111/papt.12354).
Abstract
Objectives: paranoia describes unfounded and distressing interpersonal threat beliefs. Secure attachment imagery has been shown to attenuate paranoia and anxiety in non-clinical and clinical groups, but little is known about the differential effects of anxious and avoidant imagery or mechanisms of change. In this study, we tested the impact of secure, anxious, and avoidant attachment imagery on paranoia, anxiety, and help-seeking intentions. We also examined hypothesized mechanisms of change, specifically whether cognitive fusion and negative self- and other-beliefs mediate these relationships.
Design: this study utilized an experimental, cross-sectional design. Methods: A large (N = 303), international general population sample with high levels of non-clinical paranoia completed a series of measures before and after engaging in secure, anxious, or avoidant imagery.
Results: relative to anxious and avoidant attachment imagery, secure attachment imagery reduced paranoia and anxiety and increased help-seeking intentions. Cognitive fusion and negative self- and other-beliefs mediated the impact of attachment imagery on paranoia and anxiety, but not help-seeking.
Conclusions: in line with attachment and cognitive theory, secure attachment imagery is effective in reducing paranoia and anxiety and works by reducing cognitive fusion and negative self- and other-beliefs. These novel findings suggest that the secure imagery task could be incorporated into cognitive and behavioural therapies to reduce distressing interpersonal threat beliefs and associated negative affect, and increase help-seeking intentions.
Practitioner points: when working with people experiencing paranoia, secure attachment imagery may be effective in reducing state paranoia and anxiety and improving help-seeking intentions. Attachment imagery works by influencing beliefs about self and others, and the degree to which people are fused with their beliefs. In clinical practice, the rationale for the imagery task fits well with psychological models of paranoia and the secure imagery task can be introduced as a way to cope when struggling with distressing beliefs about self and others, and feeling overwhelmed by these fears.
Text
Study1_Manuscript_PAPTRAP_5.0_Accepted
- Accepted Manuscript
Restricted to Repository staff only until 18 June 2022.
Request a copy
Text
papt.12354
- Version of Record
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 2 June 2021
e-pub ahead of print date: 17 June 2021
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
This work was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council [Grant number ES/P000673/1].
Keywords:
Attachment, Mental imagery, anxiety, attachment imagery, attachment priming, attachment theory, beliefs about self and others, cognitive fusion, help-seeking, paranoia, persecutory delusions, security priming
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 449722
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/449722
ISSN: 1476-0835
PURE UUID: adb1674f-108e-4517-8fd1-4603beb8e98c
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 14 Jun 2021 16:31
Last modified: 27 Apr 2024 02:22
Export record
Altmetrics
Contributors
Author:
Monica Sood
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics