"Just because you are paranoid,it doesn't mean they are not out to get you" Paranoia in a normal population

Abstract

This thesis provides a different perspective into the study of paranoia. Literature on this field has studied paranoia under the light of the medical model and has used clinical populations. In contrast to this, it is argued in this thesis that paranoia lies in a continuum with normal experiences at one end and abnormal cognitions at the other. Thus, this thesis "normalises" paranoia, which has always been considered to be a symptom of a psychiatric disorder. In order to test the argument that says that paranoia is normal and is part of the natural responses to threat in the environment (Gilbert, 1998a), the research program starts with an exploratory study on the number of people from a sample in the normal population that report episodes of paranoia. This study not only for the first time measured the number of people in the normal population that reported paranoid experiences but it also provided in depth descriptions of those experiences. Another study explored the attentional mechanisms for threat in people that report trait like paranoia in a normal population. In this case, the methodologies for attentional biases in anxiety were for the first time applied to the study of attentional biases in paranoia. Both studies were part of fruitful research that proposes a new theoretical framework and research program to the study of paranoia. This thesis contributes to knowledge in the study of paranoia by providing a new theoretical framework that was based on two studies on paranoia in a normal population. The main achievement was evidence supporting the argument for paranoia as a normal process. Evidence was not clear in terms of the cognitive mechanisms present on paranoia in a normal population and more research is needed in this area. All in all, this thesis managed to open new perspectives into the study of paranoia with interesting and ground breaking results.

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