Psychological problems Flashcards
What is the The Dopamine Hypothesis of Schizophrenia?
The Dopamine Hypothesis of Schizophrenia proposes that this mental illness is caused by high levels of dopamine.
What happens when dopamine system is overactive?
Dopaminergic neurons transmit signals more often than normal, which leads to high levels of dopamine binding to receptors. There are more dopamine receptors than normal in certain people’s brains, therefore making it more likely that dopamine will bind to receptors, which could cause schizophrenia.
What is the link between dopamine and schizophernia?
The Dopamine Hypothesis of Schizophrenia proposes that this mental illness is caused by high levels of dopamine.
The theory states that the dopamine system is overactive, therefore dopaminergic neurons transmit signals more often than normal, which leads to high levels of dopamine binding to receptors.
If there are more dopamine receptors than normal in certain people’s brains, therefore making it more likely that dopamine will bind to receptors, which could cause schizophrenia.
What happens when our brains are not functioning as it should be?
It will have a negative impact on our thoughts and behaviour.
Give three biological examples of brain disfunction in schizophrenia
1) brain being over or under active
2) the structures have been damaged
3) an abnormal volume
What is the frontal lobe of the brain responsible for? (5)
1) logic
2) reasoning
3) problem solving
4) planning
5) judgement
What is the connection between the frontal lobe and schizophrenia
People with schizophrenia have been shown to have poor performance in these areas.
What happened when psychologists have carried out brain scans on individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia when performing tasks such as the Wisconsin Card Sort Test (WCST)
They found low levels of activity in the frontal lobe
What is the affect of low levels of activity in the front lobe? (5)
low levels of activity will affect: logic, reasoning, problem solving, planning judgement.
Why is the study of hippocampus important in schizophrenia?
hippocampus part of the brain is to do with memory.
Studies have found reduced volume of this part of the brain which can explain the poor levels of cognitive functioning. Heckers (2001) also reports abnormal levels of hippocampal activity when individuals are experiencing auditory hallucinations (hearing voices).
Another area of the brain associated with hallucinations in those with schizophrenia is the temporal lobes. Are these overactive or underachieve in schizophrenics?
Overactive
Over activity in the temporal lobe area of the brain is also thought to adversely affect emotions (negative symptoms) what can this cause?
It can cause delusions, hallucinations and disordered thinking (Mandal, 2002).
What biological treatment did Daniel et al. (1991) discover for schizophrenics?
Amphetamines enhance the ability of the pre-frontal cortex during a WCST task.
1) What is a WCST?
2) And which part of the brain was this test looking at?
1) Wisconsin Card Sort Test (WCST)
2) Front lobe
The biological theory of schizophrenia can be criticised for what? (2)
1) Nature: focusing too much on the role of nature; namely biological abnormalities such as high levels of dopamine and brain dysfunctions.
2) Nurture: The biological explanations ignore the importance of psychological factors such as upbringing and life events which support the nurture argument.
