cognitive explanations of schizophrenia

Question 1

cognitive explanations

Answer 1

focuses on several abnormal cognitive processes that are associated with sz

Question 2

cognitive deficits

Answer 2

• occur when people have problems with attention, communication and information overload
• they are unable to deal with inappropriate thoughts, e.g. misperceiving voices in their head and people trying to talk to them rather than perceiving them sensibly as ‘inner speech’
• suggested as possible explanations for behaviours associated with sz such as reduced levels of emotional expression, disorganised speech and delusions

Question 3

cognitive biases

Answer 3

• refers to selective attention
• used to explain behaviours that are symptoms of sz

Question 4

cognitive biases - delusions

Answer 4

• the most common reported is that others are trying to harm or kill them (delusions of persecution)
• these are linked to biases in reasoning about social situations
• people who experience these often assume others cause what goes wrong in their life

Question 5

cognitive biases - auditory hallucinations

Answer 5

• people may see themselves as powerless compared to others in their social network, this bias can cause them to feel worthless
• most people have an inner voice when thinking in words
• there is evidence that people who experience auditory hallucinations mistake their inner voice for speech from an external source
• this power gap between themselves and others is mirrored in their relationship with the voice

Question 6

dysfunctional thought processing - metarepresentation

Answer 6

• our ability to reflect on thoughts and behaviour to identify goals and intentions and interprets others actions
• dysfunction here would disturb our ability to recognise our actions and thoughts as our own, rather than being carried about my someone else
• this can explain hallucinations

Question 7

dysfunctional thought processing - central control

Answer 7

• our ability to suppress automatic responses while we instead perform deliberate actions
• having disorganised speech may be an inability to suppress automatic thoughts and speech triggered by other thoughts
• many with sz experience derailment of thoughts and spoken word as each word triggers associations and they can’t prevent the responses to these

Question 8

give a strength of cognitive explanations
1/3

Answer 8

evidence suggests information is processed differently in those with sz. stirling et al (2006) compared 30 patients with and 18 without sz on a range of cognitive tasks including the stroop test (participants have to name the ink colour of a colour word). patients with sz took twice as long to name to ink colour as the control group, suggesting they were struggling to have central control and suppress the automatic associations

Question 9

give a strength of cognitive explanations
2/3

Answer 9

sarin and wallin (2014) reviewed research on the role of cognitive biases and found evidence supporting the claim the pos symptoms have an origin in faulty cognition. delusional patients were found to have various biases in informational processing like jumping to conclusions. and patients with hallucinations had impaired self monitoring and experienced their thoughts as voices. this demonstrates that those with sz have cognitive biases

Question 10

give a strength of cognitive explanations
3/3

Answer 10

has many practical applications. yellowless et al (2002) developed a machine that produced virtual hallucinations to show those with sz that their hallucinations aren’t real. this suggests understanding the effects of cognitive deficits allows new initiatives for sz and improves patient’s quality of life. the success of cognitive therapies like CBT also supports this. NICE (2014) found evidence that CBT was more effective than antipsychotics in reducing symptoms and improving social functioning.

Question 11

give a limitation of cognitive explanations
1/1

Answer 11

there is an issue with cause and effect. these cognitive approaches don’t explain the cause of cognitive deficits - where does the dysfunction come from? it is unknown if the cognitive deficits cause the sz or if the sz causes the cognitive deficits. although links between symptoms and faulty cognitions are clear, the origin of these cognitions is unclear so we can’t be certain the dysfunctions are the cause of the illness and not just an effect