The relationships of need for closure dimensions with psychotic-like experiences and jumping to conclusions. A study of a large cross-population sample.

The theoretical affinity between need for closure (NFC) construct and psychotic symptomatology, especially delusionality, has been tested in various studies and brought diverse results. This study tested this relationship on a large sample from the general population using an online survey. "Preference for Predictability","Discomfort with Ambiguity" and "Decisiveness" from an abridged NFC scale (NFCS) were used to check for associations with the symptoms of delusion-like ideations and hallucination-like experiences measured with an abridged version of Prodromal Questionnaire (PQ-16). Analyses included both linear and cluster models. Additionally, we examined the associations between jumping to conclusions (JTC) task, full abridged NFCS and psychotic-like symptoms (PLEs) in asmaller sample of individuals who had the highest scores in the online PLEs assessment. Our study confirmed that NFC is not a homogenous construct. It showed weak associations with psychotic-like symptoms and virtually no associations with JTC results. "Decisiveness" exhibited negative associations with the severity of PLEs. The NFCS should not be used as auniform measure and the clinical utility of high NFCS results as an indicatorof vulnerability to psychopathology seems questionable. However, being indecisive might be a general sign of struggling with some sort of mental problems.