Psychological Explanations - Cognitive Explanations

Question 1

Symptoms like delusions and hallucinations reflect…

Answer 1

Dysfunctional thought processing in schizophrenia

Question 2

Who investigated dysfunctional thought processing

Answer 2

Frith et al 1992

Question 3

What did frith suggest schizophrenia was due to

Answer 3

Due to faulty attention system

Question 4

How does dysfunctional thinking lead to schizophrenia

Answer 4

Dysfunctional thought processes affect their ability to filter preconscious thoughts due to faulty attention systems

Question 5

What causes faulty attention systems

Answer 5

Preconscious thoughts that aren’t filtered properly so we are bombarded/ overloaded with information

Question 6

2 categories dysfunctional thought processing can be separated into

Answer 6

Meta representation

Central control

Question 7

What is meta representation

Answer 7

The cognitive ability to reflect on thought and behaviour allowing us to interpret the actions of ourselves and others

Question 8

What happens to someone with meta representation dysfunction

Answer 8

Dysfunction dirstrupts understanding of whether individual controls behaviour or someone else

Question 9

What is central control

Answer 9

The cognitive ability to suppress automatic responses so we carry out actions we chose to do

Question 10

What does dysfunctional central control lead to

Answer 10

Immense difficulty to resist urges resulting in delusions and effecting speech

Question 11

4 evaluation points

Answer 11

Strength (central control) - supportive evidence
Weakness (central control) - reductionist
Strength (meta-representation) - supportive evidence
Weakness - both

Question 12

Elaboration strength - supportive evidence

Answer 12

• Stirling conducted strike test study with 30 patients and 18 controls
• concluded thought disorders are linked to semantic processing impairments
• central control would help a person resist the urge to simply shout the written word
• in schizophrenogenic patients it took twice as long to make the ink colour than controls

Question 13

What is strooop test

Answer 13

Where patients are given name of colour but actual word will be in a different coloured ink and patients are asked to say colour, not actual world

Question 14

Elaboration (central control) - reductionist

Answer 14

• only explains proximal causes of positive symptoms such as hallucinations and not origins of schizophrenia
• incomplete explanations means only explains symptoms we see
• biological explanations does this differently by looking at genetics and environmental influences
• therefore biological explanations have greater validity because more accurate in terms of proximal cause

Question 15

Elaboration strength (meta representation) - supportive evidence

Answer 15

• friths study, 30 schizophrenogenic patients had PET scans
• where radioactive trading fluid injected into body showing where highly metabolic and biochemical areas are
• higher levels of activity in those proportions of brain
• revealing reduced blood flow in frontal cortex of brain
• associated with negative symptoms and inability to supress automatic thoughts and behaviours

Question 16

Weakness - both

Answer 16

Only explains cognitive impairment

• doesn’t explain neruochemical changes
• incomplete explanations as doesn’t explain biological aspects associated with schizophrenia