paranoia
Enable an agent to describe experiences of suspected hostile intent, assess their context and impact without presuming their truth or falsity, and identify appropriate responses and limits.
Research draft, second pass
A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.
recalled by Codex without web access - no source was read
Researched by: Codex
Purpose and description
Enable an agent to describe experiences of suspected hostile intent, assess their context and impact without presuming their truth or falsity, and identify appropriate responses and limits.
Paranoia is a pattern of suspicious thinking in which a person attributes hostile intentions to others, particularly intentions to harm them, with insufficient justification, ranging from transient doubts to persistent delusional conviction.
It can be Record suspected hostile intent in attributed language that separates reports, observations and interpretations.; Compare an experience against an explicitly selected definition while preserving unresolved boundary judgments.; Track changes in conviction, preoccupation, distress and daily functioning.; Organise supporting, conflicting and missing evidence without conducting intrusive investigations.; Identify reported support preferences and actions that address distress without affirming an unverified allegation.; Flag situations requiring human assessment while keeping diagnosis outside the model..
Distinguishing features
Ask whether feared harm is attributed to another agent's hostile intention; nonspecific anticipation of danger alone does not establish the intended sense of paranoia.
Separate the report of suspicion from its evidential standing: an allegation, including an unusual one, is insufficient by itself to classify an experience as paranoia.
Distinguish deliberate hostility from fear of embarrassment or negative evaluation where no malicious intention is attributed.
Record whether the selected definition requires excessive or insufficiently supported suspicion; definitions that require this cannot be applied while evidential standing remains unresolved.
Distinguish a particular experience from a disorder: intensity, conviction or use of the word 'paranoia' alone does not establish a diagnosis.
Scope
+ The content and personal meaning of suspected hostile intent
+ Definitions ranging from everyday suspiciousness to narrowly defined persecutory beliefs
+ Conviction, preoccupation, flexibility and changes over time
+ Evidence, uncertainty and the social or cultural context of perceived threats
+ Distress, functional effects and responses associated with the experience
- Diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric or neurological disorders
- General anxiety without attributed hostile intent
- Personality classification beyond the particular experiences recorded
- Investigation and adjudication of alleged crimes, abuse or surveillance
- Conspiracy narratives considered independently of a person's experience
- Prescription or management of medication
Characteristics
- Definition and attribution
- Self-description, everyday usage, dimensional research construct or specified clinical usage; definition and attributing party recorded Different usages set different boundaries and must not be silently substituted for one another.
- Attributed hostile agent
- Identified person, group, institution, unspecified others or uncertain attribution Identifies who is perceived as intending harm without endorsing the attribution.
- Perceived threat
- Reported harm, attributed intention, perceived target and anticipated circumstances Makes the experience specific enough to distinguish persecution from other concerns.
- Conviction
- Person's own wording or an explicitly anchored rating, with date and instrument if used Separates tentative suspicion from certainty without using certainty as a proxy for truth.
- Interpretive flexibility
- Alternatives considered, conditions for revision stated, revision observed or not assessed Records how interpretations respond to uncertainty and new information.
- Evidential standing
- Unassessed, partly corroborated, contested, contradicted or unresolved; assessed separately for each claim Prevents lack of access to evidence from being mistaken for evidence of falsity.
- Preoccupation and recurrence
- Reported frequency, duration and time occupied within a stated observation period Captures persistence separately from conviction and distress.
- Distress and interference
- Separately anchored ratings or descriptions of distress and effects on sleep, relationships and daily activities Records practical burden even when the underlying threat remains unresolved.
- Threat-related responses
- Avoidance, checking, reassurance seeking, confrontation, help seeking, other reported response or none Connects the experience to observable actions and their reported consequences.
Also called
Where this came from
wikidata · CC0 1.0
Also registered as vr.tr.paranoia
Drafted structure
Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 6 bundles · 11 layers · 18 findings · 28 questions.
Meaning and boundaries Defines which sense of paranoia is being used and what would qualify under it.
The registry has no definition, and everyday, research and clinical usages must not be treated as interchangeable.
Definitions and users
Records definitions and who applies them.
Attributed definition
Represent the selected definition, its source and whether the label comes from the person, an observer or a formal assessment.
- Does this usage mean suspiciousness broadly, perceived persecution, or a more restricted construct? definition
- Who applied the term, and which source or assessment framework supports their usage? provenance
Adjacent experiences
Separates attributed malicious intent from neighbouring experiences and warranted concern.
Hostility and warrant
Test intentional hostility and evidential requirements separately rather than classifying every fear or suspicion as paranoia.
- Is someone perceived as deliberately intending harm, or is the concern about accidental danger or negative evaluation? boundary
- What distinguishes this experience from warranted mistrust under the selected definition? boundary
Perceived persecution Describes the internal content and organisation of the perceived threat.
A useful model must identify the alleged hostile intention without turning the allegation into an established event.
Agents, intentions and harm
Records who is suspected, what they are believed to intend and who is thought to be targeted.
Threat account
Keep the person's account of intended harm distinct from independently observed actions.
- Who is perceived as intending what harm, against whom, and under what circumstances? definition
- Which parts describe observed events, and which attribute motives or predict future actions? provenance
Certainty and revisability
Records confidence in the interpretation and openness to alternatives.
Relationship to the belief
Represent doubt, certainty and revision conditions in the person's own terms where possible.
- How certain does the person feel, and how was that certainty elicited or measured? measurement
- What alternative explanations can they consider, and what information might change their interpretation? boundary
Evidence and context Places the threat interpretation within available evidence and lived circumstances.
Ignoring actual mistreatment or context can produce an unjustified label, while accepting every interpretation as fact can reinforce an unverified threat account.
Claim-level evidence
Tracks what supports or challenges each component of the account.
Observation and inference separation
Assess events and inferred intentions separately, including gaps in access to evidence.
- What first-hand observations, records or independent accounts support or conflict with each claim? provenance
- Which conclusions remain unresolved because evidence is unavailable rather than contradictory? boundary
Social and cultural setting
Records circumstances relevant to interpreting suspicion and assessing an observer's judgment.
Contextual warrant
Include relevant reported mistreatment, power relationships and cultural meanings without assuming they explain the experience.
- What reported or documented harassment, discrimination, coercion or prior victimisation is relevant to this concern? provenance
- Could unfamiliarity with the person's cultural or social setting be affecting the assessor's judgment? boundary
Course and consequences Tracks when the experience occurs and how it affects daily life.
Threat content alone does not describe persistence, burden or change.
Temporal pattern
Records onset, recurrence and variation across situations.
Experience trajectory
Document changes and coinciding circumstances without turning temporal association into a causal explanation.
- When did the experience begin, how often does it recur, and how long do episodes last? measurement
- What changes in circumstances, sleep, substance exposure or health reportedly coincided with changes in the experience? provenance
Burden and behaviour
Separates emotional distress, functional interference and actions taken in response.
Impact and response pattern
Record how the experience occupies attention and changes activities, relationships or perceived safety.
- How much attention and distress does the concern produce, and which daily activities are affected? measurement
- What checking, avoidance, reassurance seeking or confrontation occurs, and what consequences does the person report? measurement
Assessment and agent response Defines how an agent may use the record while respecting uncertainty and the person's preferences.
Recognition must lead to bounded, useful responses rather than automatic diagnosis or endorsement of perceived persecution.
Operationalisation
Records how descriptions or scores were produced and what they permit an agent to conclude.
Measurement interpretation
Keep instrument-specific constructs, observation periods and interpretation limits attached to any result.
- Which instrument, interview or self-description was used, and what aspect of paranoia does it operationalise? measurement
- What evidence supports its interpretation for this language, population and setting? provenance
Support and human assessment
Connects expressed needs and observed circumstances to permitted support and human involvement.
Bounded response
Support discussion of distress and uncertainty while keeping factual adjudication, diagnosis and treatment outside the agent's conclusions.
- What help does the person want, and which responses can address that need without asserting that the suspected hostility is established? action
- What reported immediate danger, severe disruption or uncertainty requires human assessment under the applicable support protocol? action
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Check these first
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- This describes the contemporary psychological sense, not historical diagnostic uses of the word paranoia.
- Definitions differ over whether paranoia includes suspiciousness and self-reference broadly or specifically requires perceived harmful intent.
- Recalled without source consultation; verify questionnaire scoring and current diagnostic wording before formal use.
- Which of these check these first hold for the sense of paranoia this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Kinds and varieties
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Nonclinical paranoid thoughts
- Persecutory ideation
- Persecutory delusions
- Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of paranoia this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Standards and regulation
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- DSM-5-TR, issued by the American Psychiatric Association, describes related symptoms and diagnoses; paranoia alone does not establish a diagnosis.
- ICD-11, issued by the World Health Organization, classifies disorders in which persecutory beliefs can occur; paranoia is not equivalent to any single disorder.
- Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of paranoia this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Real-world use
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Clinical assessment of suspiciousness, perceived threat, conviction, distress and effects on everyday functioning.
- Research on persecutory thinking across clinical and general populations.
- Psychological formulation of how worry, sleep disruption, adverse experiences and reasoning processes may contribute to perceived interpersonal threat.
- Monitoring changes in persecutory thinking during treatment.
- Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of paranoia this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Typical measurements
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Ideas of reference on the Revised Green et al. Paranoid Thoughts Scale - Possible score: 0-32; this is an instrument range, not a typical population range. - summed questionnaire score
- Ideas of persecution on the Revised Green et al. Paranoid Thoughts Scale - Possible score: 0-40; this is an instrument range, not a typical population range. - summed questionnaire score
- Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of paranoia this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Failure modes and hazards
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Mistaking justified vigilance in response to abuse, discrimination or actual threats for psychopathology.
- Inferring a psychiatric diagnosis from suspiciousness or a questionnaire score alone.
- Missing substance effects, sleep loss, mood episodes or medical conditions that may contribute to paranoid experiences.
- Distress, social withdrawal and relationship conflict associated with persistent perceived threat.
- Stigmatising people by assuming that paranoid experiences imply dangerousness.
- Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of paranoia this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Regional variation
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Cultural beliefs, social conditions and exposure to persecution affect how suspicious statements should be interpreted.
- Translations and questionnaire thresholds require validation in the populations where they are used.
- Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of paranoia this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Suspiciousness - Suspiciousness can be proportionate to evidence; paranoia involves insufficiently justified attribution of hostile intentions.
- Anxiety - Anxiety concerns anticipated threat broadly; paranoia specifically attributes threat to other people's intentions.
- Ideas of reference - An event is interpreted as personally significant, but that interpretation need not involve hostility or intended harm.
- Delusion - Delusion concerns the nature and persistence of a belief; paranoia concerns its suspicious or persecutory content and need not reach delusional conviction.
- Paranoid personality disorder - The DSM diagnosis requires a pervasive, enduring pattern meeting additional criteria; paranoid thoughts alone are insufficient.
- Schizophrenia - Schizophrenia is a broader psychiatric syndrome; paranoia can occur within it, in other conditions or outside a diagnosable disorder.
- Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of paranoia this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
What the second pass must settle
- Which reference definitions should anchor this registry entry, and how should disagreements about dimensional suspiciousness versus narrowly defined persecution be represented?
- How should the model represent experiences containing both corroborated mistreatment and disputed interpretations without forcing a single global label?
- Which assessment instruments are supported for the intended populations and languages, and what are their interpretation limits?
- What longitudinal evidence is sufficient to distinguish a transient state from a persistent pattern without implying a diagnosis?
- Which context-sensitive criteria and human review procedures should govern decisions about disproportionate suspicion when evidence or cultural understanding is incomplete?