Schizotypy, delusional ideation and well‐being in an American new religious movement population

Abstract

This study extends two previous UK studies that looked at schizotypy in new religious movements (Peters, Day, McKenna & Orbach, 1999a; Day & Peters, 1999) using a similar religious subgroup from a different culture. A sample of American Hare Krishna devotees was compared with a non-religious control group on measures of delusional ideation, schizotypy and general well-being. The Hare Krishna group scored significantly higher than the control group on delusional ideation, but not other aspects of schizotypy or general well-being. They also scored higher on delusional conviction, but not distress and preoccupation. The findings provide cross-cultural confirmation for the notion of a continuum between normality and delusional thinking, and the need to consider delusional beliefs as multi-dimensional-psychological health seems to be predicated not on what you believe, but how you believe it.

How to tell a happy from an unhappy schizotype: personality factors and mental health outcomes in individuals with psychotic experiences

“…Studies have shown that low cooperativeness and the combination of high self-transcendence with low self-directedness are strong predictors of schizotypy. 5,[22][23][24] Our findings support the view that the relationship between self-transcendence and mental illness depends on its association with other dimensions of personality.…”

“…19 Other research has shown the role of character development in the differentiation between mental health and illness. 5,17,[19][20][21][22][23][24] Overall, these studies show that low scores in self-directedness and cooperativeness are the most common features of all personality disorders. Moreover, psychotic disorders seem to have the same configuration as found for schizotypal traits.…”

Cognitive factors maintaining persecutory delusions in psychosis: The contribution of depression.

“…Groups of people with psychosis and with non-clinical psychotic experiences were studied comparatively so that insights could be gained into the relationship between healthy variation and clinical pathology, so that specific pathogenic factors might be identified that lead to manifestations of distress and functional impairment. It was found that certain groups of non-clinical individuals, such as members of new religious movements, reported very similar patterns of unusual experiences and delusional ideation observed in people with psychosis; the important difference was that they experienced significantly less distress and preoccupation with their beliefs (Smith, Riley, & Peters, 2009;Peters, Day, McKenna, & Orbach, 1999). Population surveys confirmed the prevalence rates of self-reported psychotic experiences as being significantly higher than those of clinical psychotic disorders (Johns et al, 2004;Freeman, 2006), showing that psychotic symptoms are not exclusive to people with diagnosable mental health problems.…”

The Jumping-to-Conclusions Bias in New Religious Movements

“…Researchers have found the JTC bias in delusionprone college students (McKay et al, 2006;Warman and Martin, 2006;White and Mansell, 2009); in individuals who are at risk of making a transition to psychosis, referred to as at-risk mental state (ARMS; Broome et al, 2007); and in relatives of patients with schizophrenia (Van Dael et al, 2006). The JTC bias has not been examined in new religious movements (NRMs), a community group that has been identified as delusion prone (Lim et al, 2011;Peters et al, 1999a;Smith et al, 2009). It remains unclear whether the JTC bias demonstrated by other delusion-prone groups would also be evident in an NRM sample.…”