We report the theory of thin-sample Z -scan for materials, viz. diffusion-dominated photorefractives, having a nonlinearly induced phase that may be proportional to the spatial derivative of the intensity profile. The on-axis far-field intensity is approximately an even function of the scan distance on different positive and negative values for phase shift $Delta$$Phi$$_{o}$. In case of positive phase shift, the Z -scan graph shows a minimum and two maxima, while for the negative value, only one minimum is observed. The fact is that far-field beam profiles display beam distortion and shift of the peak as compared with Kerr-type or photovoltaic nonlinearities.s.