Schizophrenia - psychological explanations: cognitive

Question 1

what does the cognitive explanation focus on

Answer 1

maladaptive (irrational) thought processes
abnormalities increase vulnerability in stressful experiences

Question 2

dysfunctional thought processing and active cognitive bias

Answer 2

• disruption to normal thought processing
• stimuli are misperceived, explaining positive symptoms
• internal processes are mistaken for external processes

Question 3

what area of brain is associated with negative symptoms when there is low activity

Answer 3

less cognitive processsing in the ventral striatum

Question 4

what area of brain is associated with positive symptoms when there is low activity

Answer 4

temporal and cingulate gyri

Question 5

metacognition

Answer 5

the ability to monitor, reflect and think about our own thoughts and feelings

Question 6

metarepresentation dysfunction

Answer 6

• disruption in metacognition
• can’t recognise own thoughts as an internal process rather than an external force
• explains delusions and auditory hallucinations

Question 7

who proposed the metarepresentation and central control dysfunction explanation of schizophrenia

Answer 7

Frith et al

Question 8

central control

Answer 8

being able to suppress automatic responses to stimuli when we perform deliberate actions (e.g. when speaking we don’t go on tangents)

Question 9

central control dysfunction

Answer 9

• accounts for speech poverty and thought disorders
• experience a derailment of thoughts, meaning speech is confused and conversational flow changes
• can also cause delusions, and the lack of control can link to paranoia

Question 10

proximal explanation

Answer 10

explains what is happening now

Question 11

distal explanation

Answer 11

explains initial cause

Question 12

strengths of cognitive explanations of explaining schizophrenia

Answer 12

+ CBT can be an effective treatment for psychosis
+ Stirling’s stroop test supports central control dysfunction. people with schizophrenia took 2x longer to name font colour

Question 13

limitations of cognitive explanations of explaining schizophrenia

Answer 13

• primarily proximal explanation rather than distal, it’s unclear how factors lead to the cognitive dysfunctions (incomplete explanation)
• ignores evidence of biological basis, lacks complexity needed and could be better explained by interaction of different explanations