Individual differences explanation 1 - Cognitive Factors Flashcards
(18 cards)
What is the A01 content?
- Dysfunctional thought patterns
- Lack of preconscious filters
- Compromised theory of mind
Is it just schizophrenics that experience hallucinations?
No, many people can suffer from hallucinations due to factors such as illness, sleep pattern etc. Hallucinations do not mean someone is schizophrenic.
What did Morrison suggest about hallucinations?
He suggested that maladaptive thinking could offer an explanation why individuals suffer from hallucinations. Certain triggers effect hallucinations and maladaptive thinking convinces the individual to appraise them inappropriately e.g., from the devil. These can lead to behaviours such as self harm which introduce sadness which reinforce the messages causing them to be stuck in a circle.
How are negative symptoms explained?
Beck et al drew theories from the idea of the negative triad. The individual endorses the dysfunction belief about their performance and their ability to experience pleasure, they hold a gloomy view of the future. Their mental filters only allow in negative thoughts and this can lead to flatness of effect and avoliation.
What is a preconscious filter?
A filter that we as humans are unaware of, we would become too overwhelmed if we tried to attend to everything within our environment, the information that the brain deems most important reaches our conscious mind.
What was Friths theory about preconscious filters?
He developed the Attention Deficit theory. Argued that schizophrenics have do not have a filtering process, they can not filter out un important information so everything enters the conscious mind. Therefore they can’t focus.
What did Bentall argue?
He argued that schizophrenics have an attentional bias towards stimuli that are threatening e.g., violence. They are more likely to see something as threatening even when it’s not, explains paranoia.
What is the theory of mind?
The idea that we understand we have our own minds that other people have their own minds and the our minds are different. We understand that our beliefs may not be the same as others.
What is a compromised theory of mind?
When you have the inability to distinguish that our thoughts are our own. We can’t understand that they are not external.
What did Frith argue about schizophrenia and faulty TOM?
That cognitive impairments present in schizophrenics are due to faulty theory of mind. They do not understand their own mind and unable to establish what thoughts are their own and external forces.
What is Friths theory of ‘Inability to generate willed action’?
Unable to generate action they can’t plan out a behaviour and complete a task that they need to do . They may forget which tasks they have and haven’t done. Could explain negative symptom of Avoliation.
What Is Friths theory about ‘inability to monitor willed action’ ?
Unaware of their own intentions and the effort that is required to generate behaviour. Only able to observe consequences of their actions after they’ve carried out the activity. Schizophrenics may interest there actions as being placed there by an external force.
What is Friths theory about ‘Inability to monitor the beliefs and intentions of others’ ?
Schizophrenics may struggle to monitor and interpret the behaviour of others which can lead to mis understandings. They may believe that others can hear their thoughts and someone who is angry wants to cause them harm.
Evaluation - Research support
This theory is supported by the use of a stroop test. Research has ben done that involved testing schizophrenics and a control group. They both carried out a stroop test but results showed that schizophrenics were much slower meaning their cognitive processing was impaired.
How did Frith offer a causal explanation for the deficits associated with schizophrenia.
He suggested that the faulty cognitive impairments were due to a disconnection of the functions within the frontal cortex in the brain. He even devised evidenced for this.
What was Friths evidence for causation relationship?
- Less blood flow in prefrontal cortex which can lead to speech poverty
- More blood flow in the limbic system responsible for disorganised behaviour. They are less able to control their actions.
- More blood flow in temporal lobe suggests that individuals can’t tell what’s real and what’s not.
Why is this not a comprehensive theory?
Only explains cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia. Issues with movement etc are not explained. They only describe the proximal causes of schizophrenia but not the distal causes. Needs to be treated with caution if being used as a single explanation.
What is the theory of ‘An integrated model of schizophrenia’ ?
The cognitive component is clearly important but psychologist are now starting to view that schizophrenia needs to be considered in a holistic way. A range of factors such as genes or early life events combine together to provoke the dopamine system to relaxes dopamine. This causes cognitive processes to be insufficient e.g., hallucinations, they are then caught in a cycle the stress induced by experiencing these symptoms relates more dopamine.
