Abstract
Psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) are a phenomenon that occurs in the general population experiencing delusional thoughts and hallucinations without being in a clinical condition. PLEs involve erroneous attributions of inner cognitive events to the external environment and the presence of intrusive thoughts influenced by dysfunctional beliefs; for these reasons, the role played by metacognition has been largely studied. This study investigates PLEs in a non-clinical population and discriminating factors involved in this kind of experience, among which metacognition, as well as psychopathological features, seems to have a crucial role. The aim of this study was to extend the knowledge about the relationship between metacognition, psychopathology, and PLEs, orienting the focus on metacognitive functioning. The sample consisted of 207 Italian participants (men = 32% and women = 68%) voluntarily recruited online, who gave consent to participate in the study. The average age of the sample was 32.69 years (SD: 9.63; range: 18–71). Subjects affected by psychosis, neurological disease, and drug addiction were excluded from the analyses. The following scales were used to investigate PLEs: Peters et al. Delusions Inventory (PDI), Launay-Slade Hallucinations Scale-Extended Revised (LSHSE), Prodromal Questionnaire-Brief (PQ-B), and Revised Hallucination Scale (RHS). To assess general psychopathological features, the Behavior and Symptom Identification Scale (BASIS-32) was administrated. The Metacognition Self-Assessment Scale (MSAS) was chosen to evaluate metacognitive functioning. From hierarchical regression analyses, it emerged that the presence of anxiety, depression, and impulsive/addictive symptoms constitute a remarkable vulnerability factor for PLEs, in line with previous evidence regarding the relationship between general psychopathology and PLEs. Metacognition negatively predicts PLEs, and its presence does not affect the significance of psychopathological variables, suggesting that metacognitive abilities seem to play a protective role for the occurrence of PLEs among non-clinical individuals, and such ability operates as an independent predictor along with other variables. These results are explained by the role of metacognitive functions, which allow individuals to operate many mental processes such as interpreting sensorial events as real or illusory, understanding behaviors, thoughts, and drives of others, and questioning the subjective interpretation of facts.
Highlights
Psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) are a phenomenon that occurs in the general population experiencing delusional thoughts and hallucinations without being in a clinical condition (Kelleher and Cannon, 2011)
We included age and gender because they were used as controls in subsequent analysis; variables in columns 3–7 correspond to facets of Behavior and Symptom Identification Scale (BASIS-32); and metacognition and all the unusual experience scales were used in the study
This study delivers a new inspiring perspective on the complex interplay between psychopathology, metacognition, and PLEs, suggesting that poor metacognitive functioning predisposes to the occurrence of PLEs in individuals, and such ability operates as an independent predictor along with other variables
Summary
Psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) are a phenomenon that occurs in the general population experiencing delusional thoughts and hallucinations without being in a clinical condition (Kelleher and Cannon, 2011). Most of the publications on this topic refer to the self-regulatory executive function model (S-REF; Wells and Matthews, 1996), which defines metacognition as “the aspect of information processing that monitors, interprets, evaluates, and regulates the contents and processes of its organization” (Wells and Purdon, 1999). Studies using this perspective show that metacognitive beliefs involving worry and intrusive thoughts promote and maintain delusional and hallucinatory experiences in clinical and non-clinical populations (Larøi and Van Der Linden, 2005; García-Montes et al, 2006; Barkus et al, 2010). The hypothesis of the present work is that the metacognitive functions, measured with MSAS, can play a role in the PLE as well as in the metacognitive contents and the interaction with psychopathology can be verified given the nature of this model
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