Abstract

This study investigated the relationships among negative self-concept, defensive attributional style, self-referential target reasoning, reasoning biases about intentionality and hostility. It was postulated that these variables are the core factors in paranoia. The Paranoia Scale, Beck Depression Inventory, the Hostility Scale, the Self-concept Scale, the Self-Discrepancy Scale, the Attribution and Target Reasoning Questionnaire were administered to 444 college students. The results showed that the paranoid tendency was significantly correlated to negative self-concepts, and reasoning bias that showed more self-as-target bias for other person's ambiguous behaviors and interpreted the behaviors as more intentional and more hostile. Paranoid group attributed the ambiguous situation more internally and the obviously negative situations more externally. And, It was showed that the self-concept significantly correlated with the reasoning biases of target, intentionality, and hostility. It was confirmed that the self-concept is a core variable in paranoia. The suggestions and the limitations of this study, and the directions of future study were discussed.