Schizophrenia key terms

Question 1

Classification of mental disorder

Answer 1

The process of organising symptoms into categories based on which symptoms frequently cluster together.

Question 2

Schizophrenia

Answer 2

A severe metal disorder where contact with reality and insight are impaired, an example of psychosis.

Question 3

Positive symptoms of schizophrenia

Answer 3

Atypical symptoms experienced in addition to normal experience. They include hallucinations and delusions.

Question 4

Hallucinations

Answer 4

A positive symptom of schizophrenia. They are sensory experiences that have either no basis in reality or are distorted perceptions of things that are there.

Question 5

Delusions

Answer 5

A positive symptom of schizophrenia. They involve beliefs that have no basis in reality, for example, a person believes they are someone else is the victim of a conspiracy.

Question 6

Negative symptoms of schizophrenia

Answer 6

Atypical experiences that represent the loss of a usual experience such as loss of clear thinking or motivation.

Question 7

Speech poverty

Answer 7

A negative symptom of schizophrenia. It involves reduced frequency and quality of speech.

Question 8

Avolition

Answer 8

A negative symptom of schizophrenia. It involves loss of motivation to carry out tasks and results in lowered activity levels.

Question 9

Co-morbidity

Answer 9

The occurrence of two disorders or conditions together, for example a person has both schizophrenia and a personality disorder. Where two conditional are frequently diagnosed together it calls into question the validity of classifying two disorders separately.

Question 10

Symptom overlap

Answer 10

Occurs when two or more conditions share symptoms, this calls into question the classification of disorders separately.

Question 11

Genetics

Answer 11

Genes consist of DNA strands. DNA produces ‘instruction’ for general physical features of an organism (eye colour). And also specific physical features (neurotransmitters). These may impact on psychological features (intelligence). Genes are inherited by the parents offspring.

Question 12

Neural correlates

Answer 12

Patterns of structure or activity in the brain the occur in conjunction with an experience and may be implicated in the origins of that experience.

Question 13

Dopamine

Answer 13

A neurotransmitter that generally has an excitatory effect and is linked to the sensation of pleasure. Unusually high levels are associated with schizophrenia and unusually low levels are associated with Parkinson’s disease.

Question 14

Family dysfunction

Answer 14

Refers to the process within a family such as poor family communication, cold parenting and high levels of expressed emotion. These could be risk factors for both the development and maintenance of schizophrenia.

Question 15

Cognitive explanations

Answer 15

Explanations that focus on mental processes such as thinking , language and attention.

Question 16

Dysfunctional thought process

Answer 16

Information processing that does not represent reality accurately and produces an undesirable consequences.

Question 17

Antipsychotics

Answer 17

Drugs used to reduce the intensity of symptoms, in particular the positive symptoms of psychotic disorders like schizophrenia.

Question 18

Typical antipsychotics

Answer 18

The first generation of drugs for schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders , having been used since the 1950s. They work as dopamine antagonists and include chlorpromazine.

Question 19

Atypical antipsychotics

Answer 19

Drugs for schizophrenia developed after typical antipsychotic. They typically target a range of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin. Examples include Clozapine and risperidone.

Question 20

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)

Answer 20

A method for treating mental disorders based on both cognitive and behavioural techniques. From the cognitive point of view the therapy aims to target the thinking by challenging negative thoughts. The therapy includes behavioural techniques.

Question 21

Family therapy

Answer 21

A psychological therapy carried out with all or some members of a family with the aim of improving the communication from within the family and educing the stress of living as a family.

Question 22

Token economics

Answer 22

A form of behavioural modification, where desirable behaviours are encouraged by the use of selective reinforcement. For example, people are given rewards (tokens) when they engage in socially desirable behaviour. The tokens are the secondary reinforcers and can be exchanged for the primary enforcers- eg food or privileges.

Question 23

Interactionist approach

Answer 23

A way to explain the development of behaviour in terms of a range of factors including both biological and psychological. More importantly those factors do not simply add together, they combine in a way that can’t be predicted by each one separately- they interact.

Question 24

Diathesis-stress model

Answer 24

An interactionist approach to explaining behaviour. For example, schizophrenia is explained as both an underlying vulnerability (diathesis) and a trigger (stressor), both of which are necessary for the onset of schizophrenia. In early versions of the Diathesis-stress model, vulnerability was genetic and triggers were psychological. Now both genes and trauma are seen as diathesis, and stress can be biological or psychological in nature.