The Effects of Failure on Self-Esteem and Attributions in Non-Clinical Paranoia

The present study used Bentall\u27s attribution model of paranoia to investigate the effects of failure on self-esteem and attribution of those with paranoid symptoms. The present study used individuals who scored high and low on the Paranoia Scale (PS), a measure of paranoia, to form two comparison groups. Each group was given an unsolvable anagram task and told that they performed worse than others. This was used to simulate failure. The study utilized the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) and the Internal Personal, and Situational Attributions Questionnaire (IPSAQ) to determine what effects failure of the presented task had on their self-esteem and attribution. Data was gathered before and after the failure task and examined to determine what effect failure had on paranoid ideation, self-esteem, and attribution biases in a non-clinical college sample