psychological explanations of schizophrenia: cognitive

Question 1

cognitive explanation

Answer 1

-dysfunctional thinking is a disruption to normal thought processing
-reduced in ventral striatum is associated with negative symptoms
-reduced in temporal cingulate guru is associated with hallucinations

Question 2

types of dysfunctional thinking

Answer 2

-meta representation (allows us to reflect on thoughts and behaviour - disruption means we don’t recognise our own thoughts)
-central control (suppressing thoughts and actions - if it doesn’t work you may experience speech poverty or speech disorganisation)

Question 3

strength

Answer 3

point - research support
evidence - stirling et al (2006) found that SZ patients took 2x as long as control to complete cognitive task
explain - lacks inhibition

Question 4

weakness

Answer 4

point - proximal explanation
evidence- cognitive tells us what is happening now (proximal)
-there’s little research into what causes DT (distal explanation)
explain - interaction of genetics and family trauma (don’t understand how childhood trauma + genetics cause these dysfunctions)

Question 5

strength

Answer 5

point - little more holistic
evidence- considers neurology looks at interaction (gives drugs, targeted therapy for challenging dysfunctional thinking) also considers side affects of drugs
explain - covers all the treatments and causes of SZ