When the others are dangerous: Disentangling the role of paranoid presentations in personality pathology

ntroduction: According to recent theories, personality pathology is mainly mirrored by persistent distortion and dysregulation in interpersonal processes. Consistently, paranoia is a crucial transdiagnostic feature of several Personality Disorders (PDs), to the point that recent diagnostic developments have questioned its discriminant validity. However, there is a paucity of studies investigating paranoid presentations in personality pathology, with inconsistent findings. Methods: The present study involved a nonclinical sample of 270 individuals with a mean age of 36.1 years (SD = 14.5, range = 18 – 65). Participants completed measures of pathological personality traits, paranoid dimensions, and impairment in the Self- and Interpersonal functioning. Results: Findings showed that Paranoid and Schizotypal PD traits uniquely contributed to a wide range of paranoid presentations. Conversely, other PD traits showed little evidence of significant association with paranoid presentations. Furthermore, ideas of reference partially explained the relationship between Paranoid PD traits and Self-impairment. Similarly, paranoia's cognitive component partially explained the association between Paranoid PD traits and Interpersonal impairment and the link between Schizotypal PD traits and Interpersonal impairment. Discussion: The present contribution provides evidence that individuals high in Paranoid and Schizotypal PD traits manifest a broad range of paranoid presentations, and that ideas of reference and paranoia's cognitive component play a relevant role in the impairment of their Self- and Interpersonal functioning.