PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPLANATION: COGNITIVE THEORIES Flashcards
What does cognitive explanation do
focus on mental processes such as thinking, language & attention
Define dysfunctional thought processing
info processing that is not functioning normally and produces undesirable consequences
Who proposed the cognitive schizophrenic model
Beck et al
what does the cognitive model suggest what interacts to explain disorder
Complex interaction of neurobiological, enviro, behavioural, cognitive factors to explain disorder
what did the cognitive model suggest (3)
- Abnormalities within brain functioning seen as increasing vulnerability to stressful life experiences→ lead to dysfunctional belief & behaviours
- Cognitive defects→ experience problem with attention, communication & info overload.
- In able to deal with inappropriate idea eg misperceiving voices in their head as ppl actually trying to speak to them rather then an ‘inner voice’ which most experience
What were the 2 kinds of dysfunctional thought processing
Frith et al said that underlie some symptoms
- meta representation - Central control
What does meta representation (DTP) suggested (3) and explain what happens if it was dysfunctional
- Cognitive ability to reflect on thoughts and behaviour.
- Allows us insight into own intentions and goals
- allows us to interpret the actions of others.
What does central control (DTP) suggested and explain what happens if it was dysfunctional
Cognitive ability to suppress automatic responses while we perform deliberate actions
instead disorganised speech + thought disorder could result from inability to suppress automatic thoughts and speech triggered by other thoughts e.g. suffers with schizo tend to experience derailment of thought and spoken sentences because each word triggers association→ patient cannot suppress automatic response to these
What did sterling et al do and find that supported DTP
Compared 30 patients with diagnosis of schizo with 18 non schizo control group on range of cognitive tasks including stoop test→ had to name ink colour of colour word⇒ suppressing impulse to read words in order to do task= Frieth’s theory of central control
Patients took over 2 times to name ink colour than control
Evaluate how the cognitive theory does not address the cause (3) (-ve)
Shows info processing is different in minds of schizo sufferer⇒ Links between symptoms and faulty condition are clear
Does not tell us about origin of those cognitions or of schizophrenia problems with cause and effect. Cognitive approaches do not explain the causes of cognitive deficits – where they come from in the first place. Is it the cognitive deficits which causes the schizophrenic behavior or is the schizophrenia that causes the cognitive deficits? This suggests that there are problems with the chicken and egg problem.
Evaluate how the cognitive theory is reductionist
does not consider other factors such as genes. It could be that the problems caused by low neurotransmitters creates the cognitive deficits. This suggests that the cognitive approach is oversimplistic when consider the explanation of schizophrenia
Explain cognitive bias in terms of schizophrenia + example and explain how this theory’s explains this example
- [Cognitive biases]refer to selective attention. The idea of cognitive biases has been used to explain some of the behaviors which have been traditionally regarded as ‘symptoms’ of ‘schizophrenia’.
- Delusions: The most common delusion that people diagnosed with schizophrenia report is that others are trying to harm or kill them – delusions of persecution. Research suggests that these delusions are associated with specific biases in reasoning about and explaining social situations. Many people who experience feelings of persecution have a general tendency to assume that other people cause the things that go wrong with their lives.
Evaluate how biological explanation can be better than the cognitive explanation (2 studies)
Psychological explanations are environmentally reductionist as they only focus on family dysfunction maintaining and causing the disorder. Whereas nature can also put forward evidence within family studies that show the risk of schizophrenia. The biological explanation uses Family studies, therefore, find individuals who have schizophrenia & determine whether biological relatives are affected more often than non bio relatives. An example of evidence being put forward was Gottesman: found MZ twins have 48% risk of getting schizo whereas DZ have 17% risk=> higher degree genetic relativeness thus higher risk of getting schizo=> Also more common in bio relatives of schizo-> closer degree of genetic relatedness the greater risk
Additionally Kindler: first degree relatives of those with schizo are 18 times more at risk than general pop
Evaluate the issue with biological explanation
- nature-v-Nurture. It is very difficult to separate out the influence of nature-v-nurture. The fact that the concordance rates are not 100% means that schizophrenia cannot wholly be explained by genes and it could be that the individual has a pre-disposition to schizophrenia and simply makes the individual more at risk of developing the disorder. This suggests that the biological account cannot give a full explanation of the disorder.
Evaluate how the cognitive explanation has practical applications.: research by Yellowless et al. (3) (+ve)
- developed a machine that produced virtual hallucinations, such as hearing the television telling you to kill yourself or one person’s face morphing into another’s.
- The intention is to show schizophrenics that their hallucinations are not real.
- This suggests that understanding the effects of cognitive deficits allows psychologists to create new initiatives for schizophrenics and improve the quality of their lives.
