SCHIZOPHRENIA: Psychological Explanations (Cognitive)

Question 1

What are the three stages to the Cognitive processing of SZ patients?

Answer 1

Stage 1: Cognitive Processing Biases
Stage 2: Misattribution of Consequences to causes
Stage 3: Failure to Test Reality with Memory or Logic

Question 2

What is the Cognitive Process of Delusions?

Answer 2

Inadequate Information Processing > Egocentric Biases > Failure to Contextualise Events
Patients are unable to perform ‘reality testing’ (Beck & Rector 2005) as they don’t see disconfirming evidence so they don’t reality check.

Question 3

What is the Cognitive Process of Hallucinations?

Answer 3

Hypervigilance > Higher expectancy of voices > Patients can’t distinguish between internal and sensory images (Aleman 2001)
They misattribute the source of internal images to external sources (Baker & Morrison 1998)

Question 4

What did Frith et al (1992) say about cognitive processes?

Answer 4

Conducted an influential cognitive study that described two deficits as the underlying cause of some symptoms.

• Meta-Representation
• Central Control

Question 5

How can Meta-Representation be seen as an underlying cause of SZ symptoms?

Answer 5

Cognitive ability to reflect on thoughts and behaviour, allowing us into our own intentions and goals. Dysfunction disrupts our ability to recognise our own actions and thoughts as being carried out by ourselves rather than someone else. This explains auditory hallucinations and delusions like thought insertion

Question 6

How can Central Control be seen as an underlying cause of SZ symptoms?

Answer 6

The cognitive ability to suppress automatic responses while we perform deliberate actions. Dysfunction leads to disorganised speech as we are unable to suppress automatic thoughts and speech triggered by other thoughts