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COGNITIVE EXPLANATION OF SZ - Coggle Diagram
COGNITIVE EXPLANATION OF SZ
role of mental processes focus
suggests sz is associated with dysfunctional thought processes, (information isn't processed correctly resulting in undesirable consequences)
several types of abnormal information processing, these can inform an explanation for the schizophrenic
in non-sz brains, we can filter incoming stimuli and process them to extract meaning
it is thought that filtering mechanisms and processing systems are defective in brains of sz
Frith et al (1992)
identified 2 kinds of dysfunctional thought processing
Metarepresentation
cognitive ability to reflect on thoughts and behaviour, and interpret the actions of others. Individual no longer recognises that their own thoughts and actions are carried by themself rather than someone else, they feel controlled in the external world
explains delusions and hallucinations
Central control
suppress automatic responses, while we perform deliberate actions instead. If the ability to suppress automatic responses is dysfunctional this could effect the ability to produce logical thoughts and coherent speech. If a word automatically triggers an association with another word the individual cannot suppress this and may result in derailment of thoughts and spoken sentences.
explains speech poverty
Evaluating the cognitive explanation
Point 1
Strong support for the idea that thought processes are different in the mind of sz's.
stirling et al 2006. compared 30 sz patients to 18 non-sz patients on stroop test, (name ink colour of coloured words) and found that sz patients took twice as long to name the ink colours
they have a faulty central control which implies that they cannot supress the automatic response so it therefore takes longer
point 2
further support is from the use of CBT to treat sz
in CBT the client is encouraged to challenge and change their faulty processing of info, studies have shown a reduction in symptoms after receiving the therapy
presenting the idea how faulty processing of info plays a role in the onset and symptoms due to a reduction
point 3
one key issue
the links between cognition and sz dont provide an explanation for the origin of faulty thought processing, meaning the cognitive explanation isnt actually explaining the cause of schizophrenia
therefore we need a biological explanation alongside to back it up meaning the explanation is weakened on its own
point 4
unclear whether dysfunctional thought processes are a cause of result of neural correlates
does dysfunctional metarepresentation reduce dopamine activity or is it an effect of reduced dopamine activity
therefore it is all correlational, we are only inferring. cause and effect cant be drawn which questions the validity of the approach