Cognitive

• Cognitive explanation

  Mental illness is caused by dysfunctional thought processes
• Attention deficit theory

  People with SZ are unable to filter irrelevant information from the preconscious mind so become overwhelmed
• Frith (1979)

  Used PET scans to show that people have reduced blood flow to areas in the prefrontal cortex during cognitive tasks, supporting the attention deficit theory
• Stirling et al (2006)

  Found that people with SZ take significantly longer on the Stroop task
• Bentall & Kancy (1966)

  People with SZ have an attentional bias towards stimuli with a threatening nature, which could explain paranoid delusions
• Positive evaluation of the cognitive explanation

  Has helped to develop CBT as a way of supporting people with SZ; if it is caused by errors in thinking, we can alter how they think
• Negative evaluation of the cognitive explanation

  - we don't know what causes the inability to filter out irrelevant stimuli

  - may lead to someone being blamed for their illness which is unethical