Psychology- Schizophrenia characteristics

• Schizophrenia


  A type of psychosis where a patient experiences a "split from reality"
• The term "schizophrenia" originates from the Greek "Schizo" meaning split and "Phren" meaning mind
• 1 in 100 people in the UK are diagnosed with Schizophrenia, most between ages 15-35 with males and females equally affected
• Symptoms of schizophrenia (according to Kurt Schneider)

  • Positive symptoms - individual demonstrates behaviours in addition to normal behaviours
  • Negative symptoms - prevent individual from demonstrating normal behaviours
• Positive symptoms


  • Hallucination (including formication where individual feels small insects crawling under skin)
  • Delusions (including paranoid delusions that the government is tracking everything you say and do)
  • Disordered thinking (conversation jumps from one topic to another, frustrating for individual and difficult to communicate with them)
• Negative symptoms


  • Alogia (reduced amount of speech)
  • Avolition (display lack of interest and does not want to take part in activities they once enjoyed)
  • Anhedonia (lack of positive emotion to pleasurable experiences)
  • Flatness of affect (appears to have no emotion or facial expressions when conversing)
  • Catatonic behaviour (can range from repetitive movements to none at all, e.g. echopraxia - mimic movements of others, echolalia - mimic speech of others)
• In ICD-10 there were various subtypes of schizophrenia which could be diagnosed based on main symptoms displayed, but these subtypes have now been removed in ICD-11
• The ICD-10 is used in the UK and Europe when diagnosing mental illnesses such as schizophrenia
• Diagnosing schizophrenia


  1. Symptoms must be present most of the time for at least one month

  2. Individual must display at least one of the major symptoms (auditory hallucinations, thought insertion, thought broadcasting and delusions)

  3. Individual must display at least two of the minor symptoms (hallucination of any type, disorganised speech, catatonic behaviour and negative symptoms) simultaneously