Cognitive Explanations of Schizophrenia

Question 1

Cognitive Explanations of Schizophrenia

Answer 1

• A cognitive impairment suggests that schizophrenia is the consequence of faulty processing.
• Chris Frith et al. (1992), believes there are two main faults that may lead to schizophrenia.

Question 2

Meta representation

Answer 2

• The ability to reflect on our thoughts, behaviour and experiences and it is the mental ability that allows us self-awareness of own intentions and goals.
• Problems with meta representation which could disrupt our ability to recognize our own thoughts and actions are being carried out by ‘me’ and not someone else
• i.e. hearing their own thoughts as foreign.

Question 3

Cognitive control

Answer 3

• Cognitive control is your mind’s ability to actively create an information picture that will guide your behaviour. It’s what allows you to select a certain behaviour that you have accepted as appropriate and reject a behaviour that you have decided is inappropriate.
• It also clarifies your long-term goals and purposes, helping you change what you’re doing in order to reach these goals. Cognitive control is at the center of your self-awareness, your highest level of consciousness and your willpower.
• Unable to inhibit inappropriate but desired behaviours.

Question 4

Stroop and Schizophrenia

Answer 4

• There is strong support for the idea that information is processed differently in the schizophrenic sufferer.
• Stirling compared 30 patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia to 18 non-patients controls on a range of cognitive tasks including the Stroop test.
• Schizophrenic patients took twice as long to name the ink colours than the control group, supporting Frith’s theory of central control dysfunction.