Assessment of delusional beliefs during the modification of delusional verbalizations

✍ Scribed by Dr. Bill Himadi; Frances Osteen; Andrew J. Kaiser; Kimberly Daniel

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1991
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 707 KB
• Volume: 6
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1072-0847
• DOI: 10.1002/bin.2360060505

✦ Synopsis

This study examined the strength of delusional beliefs during the modification of delusional verbalizations of a 5 1 year-old chronically mentally ill inpatient. The changing-criterion design was used to document the effectiveness of a behavioral treatment package to alter the rate of delusional responses to personal background questions. The results revealed a stepwise decline in the frequency of delusional responses. Generalization effects to novel interviewers were obtained. No changes were obtained on the subject's ratings of delusional beliefs, with the subject assigning ratings of absolute conviction to his beliefs throughout the duration of the study.

The major components to the definition of a delusion include a false personal belief or idea that is not shared by other members of the individual's culture and that is impervious to contradictory facts or counter-arguments (cf.