Cognitive Explanations AO3 (schizophrenia)

• +Evidence for dysfunctional thought process. Stirling compared performance on a range of cognitive tasks (e.g. Stroop task) in people with and without schizophrenia. As predicted by central control theory, people with schizophrenia took over twice as long on average to name the font-colours. This supports the view that the cognitive processes of people with schizophrenia are impaired.
• -Only proximal origins of symptoms explained. Cognitive explanations for schizophrenia are proximal explanations - they explain what is happening now to produce symptoms. Cognitive explanations are weaker as distal explanations (i.e. what causes cognitive problems), possible distal explanations are genetic and family dysfunction. This means that cognitive theories alone only provide partial explanations.
• Psychological or Biological?

  The cognitive approach provides an excellent explanation for the symptoms of schizophrenia, suggesting it is a psychological condition. However, abnormal cognition is probably partly genetic in origin and the result of abnormal brain development (Toulopoulou). This means that although it has psychological symptoms, schizophrenia is best seen as a biological condition.