schizophrenia

Question 1

schizophrenia definition

Answer 1

severe mental psychosis disorder- where reality+insight impaired

Question 2

diagnostic criteria: 4 core, positive symptoms ICD-11

Answer 2

experience ‘in addition to’ / ‘distortion of’ normal experience
- Persistent delusions: individual beliefs not based in reality
- Hallucinations: sensory experience, commonly auditory
- thought disorder
- experiences of influence, passivity, control

Question 3

negative symptoms (definition+examples)

Answer 3

level of functioning/experience falls below normal levels
- avolition
- flattened effect
- impaired cognitive function (reduced memory/attention)
- catatonia

Question 4

Describe Aneja et al: An early-onset case study

Answer 4

• boy who showed decline in academic studies+general behaviour from age 10. parents divorced. him+mother moved in with grandparents and he changed school
• from age 12, started hearing voices+believed his mother+other ppl were communicating with the voices. became erratic, muttered to himself, shouted at nothing, barely slept
• admitted to hospital+was given meds

Question 5

delusions of persecution

Answer 5

believe they’re being deliberately victimised, with no evidence

Question 6

delusions of reference

Answer 6

strongly held belief that events in the environment are related to you

Question 7

grandiose delusion

Answer 7

strongly held belief that you have superpowers or special abilities

Question 8

Aneja et al : evaluation strengths

Answer 8

case study: used various data collections- provides deeper understanding of case
-> increases validity of research

Question 9

Aneja et al : evaluation weaknesses

Answer 9

case study: can’t generalise findings to wider population
- can’t be replicated- no 2 situations are the same

Question 10

Aneja et al : evaluation weaknesses (child research)

Answer 10

hard to children to get full informed consent(usually parents responsible)
- protection from harm
- right to withdraw- not aware

Question 11

State the two aims of Freeman et al. (2003).

Answer 11

To investigate whether participants without a history of mental illness have thoughts of a persecutory nature in virtual reality.
To find out whether there are cognitive or emotional factors that predict the likelihood of persecutory ideation being shown in virtual reality.

Question 12

What is the sample of Freeman et al. (2003)?

Answer 12

12 male and 12 female
From University College London
An average age of 26 years
Had no history of mental illness
Recruited using volunteer sampling through advertisement

Question 13

What is the experimental design of Freeman et al. (2003)?

Answer 13

Laboratory experiment
Correlational study

Question 14

context of freeman et al

Answer 14

VR new technology: used to investigate spatial awareness, cognitive skills+social interactions
treating range of psychological disorders: phobias, anxiety disorders

Question 15

main theories+explanations

Answer 15

persecutory ideation: belief, with no evidence, that others are being hostile towards you

Question 16

What are the conclusions of Freeman et al. (2003)?

Answer 16

Freeman et al. concluded that people do attribute mental states to VR characters and, although these are usually positive, they can be persecutory in nature.
People are more likely to show persecutory ideation if they show high levels of interpersonal sensitivity or anxiety.

Question 17

Freeman evaluation: sample size

Answer 17

• Lowg eneralisability:smallsamplesize(24)
• notrepresentative:allparticipantsfromthesameuniversity(students/administrativestaff)
• Nogenderbias:equalnumberofmales(12)&females(12)

Question 18

standardised approach

Answer 18

• Increasereliability(consistency)ofthemeasurement
• ↓ ecological validity (a simulated environment which was quite different from what we usually experience) - usingtheVRprogramme(increasesthereliabilityofmeasurement)

Question 19

issues+debates evaluation of freeman

Answer 19

control variables: Halfoftheparticipantscompletedquestionnairesaftercomingoutofthevirtualenvironment. ⚬ Theotherparticipantscompletedquestionnairesbeforeandafterenteringthevirtualenvironment.
ethics: Informedconsentwasgiventotheparticipants ⚬ Righttowithdraw ⚬ Debriefing(aboutthepersecutoryideationpartoftheresearch) ⚬ Protectionfromharm(participantswhoscored↑inanxiety&interpersonalsensitivity)
application everyday life: Providedgreaterunderstandingoffactorsthatmaypredictpersecutoryideation ⚬ VR technology can be used to measure persecutory ideation (limitation that it’s still not the actual environment)

Question 20

biological: genetic explanation (Gottesman+Shields)