Schizophrenia Theories Flashcards
Positive Symptoms of Schizophrenia
Experiences that add to schizophrenia
Positive Symptoms of Schizophrenia-Hallucination
Sensory experiences with no basis in reality
Positive Symptoms of Schizophrenia-Delusions
Beliefs that are not based in reality
Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia
Experiences that involve the loss of usual abilities and experiences
Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia-Avolition
A loss of motivation in the things that they normally care about
Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia-Speech Poverty
The amount and quality of speech is reduced
Classification of Schizophrenia-Evaluation
- Research shows poor validity in diagnosis-Cheniaux study
- Cheniaux study also shows poor reliability in diagnosis
- Buckley Study shows a lot of Co-Morbidity between Schizophrenia and other illnesses
- Symptom Overlap between Schizophrenia and Bi-Polar-Are they the same thing?
- Gender Bias-Longenecker study
- Cultural Bias-Those of African and Caribbean origin are more likely to be diagnosed-In these cultures, voices are seen as natural
Biological Explanations-Genetics-Runs in families
According to Gottesman, identical twins have a 48% chance of developing schizophrenia. This decreases as genetic similarity decreases
Biological Explanations-Genetics-Candidate Genes
There many many different genes that create the vulnerability to schizophrenia, according to Ripke, there are 108 different candidate genes
Biological Explanations-The Dopamine Hypothesis-Neurotransmitter
Dopamine is the most important chemical in the development of schizophrenia
Biological Explanations-The Dopamine Hypothesis–The Subcortex
In the early version of the theory,focus was on high levels of dopamine in the subcortex (areas like Brocas area). This could explain speech avolition
Biological Explanations-The Dopamine Hypothesis-The Cortex
Recent version of the hypothesis focus on the cortex,where there is low levels of dopamine,which causes negative symptoms
Biological Explanations-Neural Correlates-Negative Symptoms
Avolition is related to motivation. The ventral striatum is involved in motivation. So an abnormality functioning ventral striatum (low activity levels) May be involved in developing schizophrenia
Biological Explanations-Neural Correlates-Positive Symptoms
According to Allen,Hallucinations are caused by low activity levels in the Superior Temporal Gyrus and the Anterior Cingulate Gyrus
Biological Explanation-Evaluation
+Research Support-Gottesman and Tienari studies
- Mixed Evidence for Dopamine Hypothesis-Some dopamine agonists make symptoms worse, but some genes code for unrelated chemicals (not dopamine)
- Correlation Causation Problem-Don’t know if Neural Correlates cause schizophrenia,or are an result of schizophrenia