What is schizophrenia? Flashcards
Schizophrenia
A mental illness characterised by a number of different symptoms.
Positive symptom
A behaviour that is present but will not be seen in a person not diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Three types displayed by a schizophrenic:
Hallucinations:
Often auditory hallucinations (hear voices in their head that are not real that tell them what to do or think)
There are also visual/tactile hallucinations- see or feel things that are not real
Delusions:
Beliefs that could not possibly be true but seem real to the patient
Delusions of persecution- belief that creates fear and paranoia. eg. being hunted by the government
Delusions of grandeur- belief that they are powerful and/or important
Disordered thinkings:
When a person believes that their thoughts are being interfered with in some way.
Insertions- belief that thoughts are being inserted into their mind
Withdrawals- belief that thoughts are being removed from their mind
Broadcasts- belief that their thoughts are being transferred to others (via radio or tv)
Negative symptom
A behaviour that is missing but would normally be expected to be displayed.
Three different kinds:
Speech poverty- referred to as alogia. Person speaks infrequently and when they speak, speech lacks fluency. Give brief replies and rarely engage in conversations
Avolition- the inability to engage in goal-directed behaviours. eg. going to work. A person with this may seat at home all day and appear uninterested in the world around them
Flattening of affect- schizophrenics do not provide cues that show emotional involvement. eg. eye contact, body language, monotone voice
Reliability of diagnosis
Consistency of measure eg. if two doctors give the same diagnosis when presented with the same symptoms there is said to be reliability of diagnosis
Rosenhan (1973)
reliability of diagnosis
Rosenhan was interested in the reliability of diagnosis of abnormality.
Aim- to see if healthy/sane people can be diagnosed as having a mental illness
He asked 8 people (3 women, 5 men) to attend a hospital and complain that they were hearing a voice.
They each went to different hospitals in the US.
Findings:
7 out of 8 were diagnosed with schizophrenia
Once in the hospital they all behaved normally and asked to be released. It took 7- 52 days to be released
In a follow up study:
Staff at a hospital who were aware about the first study were falsely told that during the following three months or more pseudo-patients would try to enter the hospital.
Findings:
Even though there was no pseudo-patients, 10% of the admissions were judged by the psychiatrist and other staff members as fake.
Conclusion:
Clinicians and other staff were unable to detect the presence or absence of a mental illness.
Strengths:
High ecological validity- observational field experiment
Weaknesses:
No longer valid- was carried out a long time ago and data no longer valid
Validity of diagnosis
Extent to which the diagnosis is accurate and leads to an effective treatment.
Co-morbidity
Where one or more secondary disorder coincide with the primary disorder
When substantial psychiatric problems make the diagnosis of schizophrenia difficult.
Examples:
Depression, anxiety, substance abuse, PTSD, OCD
Culture bias
Judgment of a phenomena partly based on standards of one’s culture.
Whaley (2004)
Gender bias
Decisions/ judgement made differently based on whether the recipient is a male or female
Goldstein (1993)
Canuso and Pandina (2007)
Symptom overlap
No symptom of schizophrenia is exclusive to this disorder. This makes the evaluation of schizophrenic research difficult.
