Do people's shame-related beliefs affect their visual hallucinations?
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Do people’s shame-related beliefs affect the distress and severity of their visual hallucinations?
IRAS ID
272487
Contact name
Sophie Allen
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Birmingham
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 6 months, 29 days
Research summary
Psychosis is a mental-health condition that affects 0.7% of people in the UK (McManus; 2016). People who experience psychosis report various symptoms, including the experience of a range of hallucinations. Literature often focuses on auditory hallucinations with less attention paid to prevalence and experience of visual hallucinations (VH). Meta-cognition is the way in which people think about their thoughts and experiences. Meta-cognition has been found to impact upon people’s understanding of their psychosis and the associated symptoms. The term can be used to operationalise how people in the midst of psychosis struggle to understand challenges and how to take charge of them (Moritz & Lysaker; 2018). Meta-cognition is often highly associated with emotional experiences of shame due to self-critical and shaming thoughts (Morrison; 2001). Despite research highlighting a high correlation between shame and psychosis (Birchwood & Trower; 2007), there has been little research into how shame-related beliefs can impact upon symptoms.
Connor & Birchwood (2013) explored shame-related meta-cognition of people experiencing auditory hallucinations and found themes of voice content reflected issues of shame, control, and affiliation; shaming voice content resulted in reduced capacity to self-reassure following self-critical thoughts. In this study, we will extend these findings to consider VH, adding to the current literature by exploring how a person’s shame-related beliefs may impact upon their experience of VH.
We will recruit 60 people from the local Early Intervention Services and Community Psychosis Pathways to complete questionnaires that measure VH and shame-related meta-cognition, focusing on traits such as self-criticism, self-reassurance and beliefs about how others see oneself. The data will be analysed using correlation analysis. Following this, 6-8 participants will take part in an interview exploring their lived experiences of VH and the impact shame has on the maintenance of such phenomena. Interviews will be analysed via Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.
REC name
West Midlands - Edgbaston Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/WM/0086
Date of REC Opinion
21 May 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion