Behavioural Explanations Of Schizoprenia Flashcards
1
Q
What does the behavioural explanation of schizophrenia suggest?
A
These explanations are based on operant conditioning.
They suggest that because sufferers are given attention by medical profession they are encourage to repeat the behaviours.
- however it is difficult to see how hallucinations could be a learned behaviour
- counter argument: there is no evidence that one is hallucinating besides their own self reports which may be an act for attention
- Mace and Lalli (1991) withdrew attention when their patients made delusional statements and responded positively to appropriate vocalisation and found that the patient gradually made fewer bizarre statements
It has also been suggested that some of the bizarre behaviour may initially arise as a cover for poor social skills in late adolescence
