cognitive exp

• Cognitive explanations:

  • Dysfunctional thought processing for those with schizophrenia- evident in those who display positive symptoms of schizophrenia 
  • 3 cognitive dysfunctions - attention deficit theory, central control dysfunction, meta-representation dysfunction 
• Attention deficit theory:

  • Schizophrenia Is due to a faulty attention system 
  • Unable to filter preconscious thoughts - gives too much significance to the info that would usually be filtered 
  • This leads to overwhelming the conscious mind 
  • Provides an explanation for positive symptoms - hallucinations
• Central control dysfunction:

  • Ability to suppress and override automatic actions and speech - making deliberate actions to achieve goals - e.g- seeing a door handle and having the urge to open it 
  • Schizophrenics would have difficulty in resisting these urges and have difficulty explaining the reasoning behind this - results in delusions
  • Linked to speech poverty - derailments of thoughts as each word triggers associations that can't be suppressed 
• Meta-representation dysfunction:

  • The ability to identify your own thoughts and actions as your own by paying attention to them  - allows us to interpret actions of others 
  • Dysfunction disrupts our ability to recognise our own actions and thoughts- explains hallucinations of voices and delusions like thought insertion 
• supporting evidence - Stirling et al- schizophrenics perform worse than controls on cognitive tasks like Stroop test - shows central control in schizophrenics is worse, showing there is a cognitive element of schizophrenia - furthermore, Stirling’s experiment was a lab experiment meaning that there would have been high levels of control over variables
• opposing evidence -   Gottesman – family study – as the closeness of relation increases, so did the genetic vulnerability to schizophrenia - shows the importance of considering biological factors as well as psychological when diagnosing schizophrenia. 
• applications - CBT – widely used treatment that helps improve functioning and tackle delusions and hallucinations - quality of lives of schizophrenic people is improved