Cognitive explanations of SZ

Question 1

What do cognitive explanations for schizophrenia focus on?

Answer 1

It focuses on the role of internal mental processes

Question 2

What is schizophrenia characterised by?

Answer 2

Schizophrenia is characterised by disruption to normal thought processing.

Question 3

Who identified two types of dysfunctional thought processes?

Answer 3

Firth et al identified metarepresentation and central control

Question 5

What is a dysfunction in metarepresentation?

Answer 5

It is where they lack the ability to recognise what are their own actions/thoughts and what are due to external factors

Question 6

What can a dysfunction in metarepresentation cause?

Answer 6

A dysfunction in metarepresentation can cause auditory hallucinations as an individual may not understand that a voice in their head is their own voice and not somebody else’s, causing distress.

Question 7

What is an example of metarepresentation?

Answer 7

Believing that the voice telling you that your friends hate you is a different person rather than yourself

Question 8

What is a lack of central control?

Answer 8

This is where individuals with SZ lack the ability to supress their own automatic thoughts and speech

Question 9

What are Schizophrenic people’s thoughts triggered by?

Answer 9

Their thoughts are triggered by other thoughts which can lead to disordered thinking and disorganised speech

Question 10

What can schizophrenic people experience as a result of central control?

Answer 10

They can experience disrupted spoken sentances, known as derailment

Question 11

What is derailment?

Answer 11

This is where the individual’s speech is disrupted as the spoken words trigger other associations and the person cannot suppress their automatic responses to these