Schizophrenia (Cognitve) Flashcards
What is the cognitve approach?
Product of internal mental processes
Schizophrenia could be explained by using cognitive ideas and can be associated with problems at all stages of cognition
Seek to connect the cognitive deficits of schizophrenics with biological changes in the brain (Cognitive neuroscience)
What are hallucinations?
Schizophrenics are not the only people who experience hallucinations
Can occur in other mental illnesses
Healthy people can experience hallucinations from time to time
Can be triggered by different factors - stress, lack of sleep, drugs
Claiborn (2009) estimated that around 2.5-4% of the general population have experienced hallucinations
Morrison (1998) said that triggers can cause some individuals to hear voices in maladaptive ways. Can be appraised inappropriately (E.g Belonging to the devil), elicits behaviours (social withdrawal), bring shame / sadness reinforce the messages by the hallucinations
Frith (1992) said we have a ‘voice’ in our heads (inner voice), we think with this and are in control of it
Schizophrenics fail to monitor their own thoughts, miss attributing them to the outside world
Cognitive deficits were linked to an irregularity in the neural pathways in the brain
What are negative symptoms?
Beck (2008) has applied his cognitive triad to schizophrenia
The person has dysfunctional beliefs about their ability to experience pleasure so they hold a gloomy view of the future, their mental filter only allows negative messages and deficits in
What are lack of preconscious filters?
If we tried to attend to all the possible information in our environment, we would soon become overwhelmed and unable to function
All of the information from our environment enters our preconscious, the information that the brain interprets as the most pertinent enters the conscious mind, the rest is filtered out
Firth (1979) developed the “attention deficit theory”, schizophrenia is seen as a result of the breakdown of this thought filtering process. The inability that schizophrenics have to properly focus causes the impression of disorganised thought and could account for hallucinations and delusions
Things in the environment that would usually be filtered out as irrelevant are now interpreted in the conscious awareness as more significant than they actually are,
Caused by abnormalities in the brain that uses dopamine, and have reduced blood flow in these areas
Bentall (1994) argued that schizophrenics have attentional bias towards stimuli of a threatening nature, so are more likely to perceive a stimuli as threatening when it isn’t (paranoid delusions)
How does compromised theory of mind relate?
Theory of Mind (ToM) refers to our ability to understand that we have our own minds, that other people have their own mins and that they are distinct and different
Our desires are not the same as others, people may not have access to the information we have
We are not born with a ToM, it develops about the age of 2-3 years old, but not fully formed until much later in childhood’
Young children are unable to understand that their mind are separate from the minds of others
Children believe that if they know something, others will also know it
Helps us to understand our own minds, understand that our actions and thoughts are caused by ourselves
Firth (1992) believes that some of the cognitive impairments shown by schizophrenics are due to a faulty ToM, do not have a clear grasp of their own minds, unable to distinguish between actions that are from external sources are those that are generated internally
Inability to generate willed action - may be unable to plan and carry out a behaviour, could explain avolition
Inability to monitor willed action - may be unaware of their own intentions and the sense of effort that goes into generating behaviour, may interpret their actions being caused by an external force
Inability to monitor the beliefs and intentions of others - may struggle to monitor and interpret behaviour of others, could cause delusions
Evaluation of hallucinations, negative symptoms, lack of preconscious filters
Explaining Hallucinations
Morrison’s theory may explain how schizophrenia may result from hearing voices, but it does not explain where the voices initially come from
Does not explain what about schizophrenics is different that causes them to misappraise these voices, if 2,5%-4% of people experience hearing voices at least once, then why aren’t there a similar proportion of schizophrenics
Cannot explain the development of schizophrenia in people who do not experience hallucinations
Negative Symptoms
Beck’s cognitive triad was developed to explain depression, unclear how well this theory applied to schizophrenia
Does not explain where the initial negative thoughts come from
Cannot explain the positive symptoms of schizophrenia
Lack of Preconscious Filters
Symptoms of schizophrenia are caused by an ability to filter out irrelevant stimuli, but what causes this inability in the first place?
Comprised ToM
An impaired ToM has been heavily implicated in people who are diagnosed with autism, What causes this impairment to manifest as autism in one person, but schizophrenia in another?
Overall Evaluation
Cognitive theories do seem to provide a good explanation of the positive symptoms of schizophrenia
Cognitive explanations can be useful in developing methods that can help schizophrenics cope with the symptoms
Leaves some room for free will, if schizophrenia is caused by errors in thinking, then there is the opportunity to a schizophrenic to alter their thinking
They are limited in their ability to explain the negative symptoms
Limited in usefulness as they ignore the biological components of the disorder, modern neuroscience bridges the gap between cognitive and biological explanations
One methodological issue is that many of these studies are lab experiments
Majority of schizophrenics are on antipsychotic medication, this has a bit effect on the brain
Lacks generalizability to any schizophrenics who are not medicated
Cognitive deficits may be the result of the medication, some deficits that are hidden by the effect of medication
CBT has limited effectiveness for schizophrenia when not combined with antipsychotic medication
Can be reductionist, ignores social and cultural factors
Cognitive explanations may be putting the blame for the illness on the schizophrenic as “all they have to do is change their thinking”
