Cognitive Explanations

Question 1

Define meta representation and how dysfunction can contribute to symptoms of schizophrenia.

Answer 1

Meta representation- ability to reflect on thoughts and behaviour of our own and others. Dysfunction in this would disrupt an individuals ability to recognise our own actions and thoughts as being carried out by ourselves than others, leads to hallucinations.

Question 2

Egocentric bias

Answer 2

Delusions stem from egocentric bias where sufferers attribute external events as being related to them. Leads to inaccurate conclusions about events, eg flashing lights from god.

Question 3

Central control

Answer 3

Ability to suppress automatic responses while we perform deliberate actions instead. Disorganised speech and thought disorder result from the inability to suppress automatic thoughts and speech triggered by other thoughts.

Question 4

Allen

Answer 4

Individuals with SZ struggle to distinguish between imaginary and sensory based information. The inner representation of an idea can override sensory stimulus which could lead to auditory images (voices within their heads)
Prone to producing negative auditory stimuli about themselves.

Question 5

Firth- two types of dysfunctional thought processing

Answer 5

Meta representation
Central control

Question 6

T