Schizophrenia Flashcards
(57 cards)
What is schizophrenia?
A severe type of psychotic disorder characterized by disturbances in thoughts, feelings, experience, and behavior.
What are the core symptoms of schizophrenia according to ICD-11?
- Persistent delusions
- Persistent hallucinations
- Thought disorder
- Experiences of influence, passivity or control
Define persistent delusions in the context of schizophrenia.
Beliefs that are not based in reality, such as falsely believing that someone is trying to harm you.
What are persistent hallucinations?
Sensory experiences, most commonly auditory or visual, such as hearing voices or seeing things that are not there.
What is a thought disorder?
An inability to think and therefore speak in an organized manner.
What does ‘avolition’ refer to?
Lack of motivation.
What is a ‘flattened affect’?
The absence or reduction of an outward expression of feelings or emotions.
Differentiate between positive and negative symptoms in schizophrenia.
- Positive symptoms: Experiences in addition to or a distortion of normal experience (e.g., delusions, hallucinations).
- Negative symptoms: Functioning or experience falls below normal levels (e.g., avolition, flattened affect).
What is required for a diagnosis of schizophrenia?
Symptoms must persist for at least one month and not be due to another health condition or substance effects.
Describe a persecutory delusion.
A strongly held belief that one is in danger and being conspired against.
What is a grandiose delusion?
A belief that one possesses special abilities or powers, such as thinking they are a superhero.
What is a delusion of reference?
The belief that environmental events are related to oneself.
What ethical considerations must be taken into account when using children in psychological research?
Informed consent must be obtained from parents, and protection from harm is crucial.
What is a case study?
A research method that allows for in-depth analysis of a single participant or small group, yielding detailed qualitative and quantitative data.
What is the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI)?
A 53-item self-report measure designed to assess nine symptom dimensions over the past seven days.
How does virtual reality (VR) help in understanding persecutory ideation?
VR can create a simulated environment to investigate how people perceive hostility, helping to improve understanding of persecutory ideation.
What were the aims of Freeman et al.’s (2003) study?
To investigate whether participants without a history of mental illness experience persecutory thoughts in virtual reality and identify predictive factors.
What was the sample size and demographic in Freeman et al.’s study?
24 participants (12 male and 12 female), all students or administrative staff from University College London.
What correlation did Freeman et al. (2003) find regarding persecutory ideation?
Higher levels of interpersonal sensitivity and anxiety were significantly correlated with higher levels of persecutory thoughts in VR.
What is one limitation of case studies?
Results cannot be generalized to the wider population.
True or False: A positive symptom in schizophrenia is a distortion of normal experience.
True
Fill in the blank: A _______ is a strongly held belief that events in the environment are related to oneself.
delusion of reference
What is the sample size and demographic of the participants in the study?
The sample was relatively small (24), and all participants were from the same university (either students or administrative staff)
What ethical considerations were taken into account in the study?
Participants gave consent, had the right to withdraw, and were debriefed afterwards
