Psychological Explanations of Schizophrenia- The Cognitive Explanation Flashcards
What is the cognitive explanation also known as?
‘Dysfunctional thought processing’
What does the cognitive explanation suggest?
Many patients suffering from schizophrenia have dysfunctional thought processes and the symptoms of schizophrenia are due to specific cognitive deficits
What are the 3 types of dysfunction?
- Dysfunction in the central monitoring system
- Dysfunction within the supervisory attention system
- Dysfunction within insight/ egocentric bias
What does dysfunction in the central monitoring system suggest?
- A malfunction within the CMS could explain positive symptoms of schizophrenia such as hallucinations or delusions
- Due to misattribution errors (our inner speech/ articulatory control process are linked to external sources such as other people’s voices rather than our own inner voice)
What does dysfunction within the supervisory attention system suggest?
- This process is typically responsible for generating self initiated actions
- E.g. not responding to environmental stimuli with appropriate emotions because of a faulty SAS
- Problems with a person’s SAS are associated with the negative symptoms of schizophrenia such as speech poverty and avolition
What does dysfunction within insight/ egocentric bias suggest?
- Typically, we can all see we are not a central component to all events and if we do we usually grow out of this
- Egocentric bias –> everything relates to the individual specifically, so they will jump to false conclusions
- Resistant to consider alternatives (muffled voices= people’s criticisms and flashes of light= signals from God)
- An egocentric bias can lead to delusions of grandeur
If the point is:
A strength of faulty cognition as a psychological explanation of schizophrenia is that there is evidence to support its theoretical foundations.
What is the evidence and link?
Evidence- Bentall et al asked participants to either generate category items themselves or read out category items. 1 week later, the participants were asked whether they had generated the words themselves, read them or whether they were new. Results showed that schizophrenic participants with hallucinations performed worse than schizophrenic participants without hallucinations and both groups performed worse than non schizophrenic participants.
Link- This highlights the idea that schizophrenics have a deficit when it comes to monitoring ‘own’ behaviour and therefore supports the idea that positive symptoms of schizophrenia are linked to a faulty CMS.
If the point is:
A weakness of faulty cognition as a psychological explanation of schizophrenia is that it suffers from cause and effect issues.
What is the evidence, explanation and link?
Evidence- Although cognitive deficits are rife with schizophrenia, these may well be the effect of schizophrenia as opposed to a causal factor. Both cognitive deficits and schizophrenia could be caused by another factor completely, such as high dopamine.
Explanation- As we rarely study the patients before they develop schizophrenia, we cannot be sure if these cognitive deficits were there at the start and therefore may not be the cause of the disorder.
Link- This implies that dysfunctional thought processes may simply be a manifestation of schizophrenia as opposed to an instigating factor, drawing into question the validity of the explanation as it may not be the cause of schizophrenia.
If the point is:
A strength of faulty cognition as a psychological explanation of schizophrenia is that it has been practically applied to help those suffering from the condition.
What is the evidence and link?
Evidence- CBT aims to challenge and change the cognitive deficits of patients with schizophrenia and alter their behaviour simultaneously through developing more rational and constructive ways of thinking and functioning. This has been shown to be very effective with many patients.
Link- This implies that the explanation has been very useful to the 1% of the population suffering with schizophrenia.
If the point is:
A strength of faulty cognition as a psychological explanation of schizophrenia is that it is praised for being able to link both physiological and psychological aspects together to explain cases of schizophrenia.
What is the explanation, evidence and link?
Explanation- Cognitive neuroscience links areas of the brain and information processing together to explain behaviour and, with schizophrenia, this can be appreciated.
Evidence- For instance by looking at damage to the hippocampus and regions linked to working memory, we can see how they contribute to cognitive and memory deficits.
Link- This means the explanation should be praised for taking a more comprehensive account of schizophrenia.
What are the evaluation points for faulty cognition?
+ Evidence to support its theoretical foundations
– Suffers from cause and effect issues
+ Has been practically applied to help those suffering from schizophrenia
+ Praised for being able to link both physiological and psychological aspects together to explain cases of schizophrenia
