Cognitive Explanation

Disturbed Thinking (intro)

Cognitive psychologists believe that the disturbed thinking that characterise schizophrenia is the cause of the disorder rather than a symptom. In other words faulty cognitive processes such as problems with attention cause the person to lose touch with reality.

Attentional Impairment

Cognitive deficit theories explain schizophrenia as an attentional impairment. In the brain of schizophrenic, they struggle to select and filter stimuli and extract its meaning. They become inundated with external stimuli which they cannot interpret causing them to view the world differently.

Hemsley (1993)

Hemsley suggested that schizophrenia may be caused by the failure to activate schemers causing a disconnect between stored knowledge and new sensory input.

Schemes are organised packages of information that store our knowledge about the world such as the schema for a restaurant may include loud families and the smell of food.

Due to a breakdown of this process Schizophrenics may place heightened importance on insignificant events explaining delusions and paranoid episodes as they are misinterpreting events

Frith

People with sz are not able to distinguish between actions brought about externally and those generated internally. Schizophrenics have issues with self monitoring so fail keep track of their own intentions. This causes them to mistakenly regard their own thoughts as alien causing thoughts insertion and auditory hallucination.

Strength 1

I: There is evidence that supports the idea that cognitive impairments cause schizophrenia

J: McGuigan (1966) found that the larynx of schizophrenics was active during periods where they reported having auditory hallucinations. This suggests that the patients were regarding their own voices as someone else’s.

E: This suggests cognitive deficits such as lack of self monitoring lead to positive symptoms of sz.

Weakness 1

I: However, cognitive deficits may not be a full explanation of schizophrenia and there is potentially a biological influence.

J: Beck et al (2009) suggested that low dopamine activity in the brain impacts “cognitive loading” causing the brain to struggle to process information. This led to cognitive insufficiency and an increased risk of schizophrenia.

E: Therefore, the biological risk factor of developing schizophrenia discredits the cognitive deficit approach as a sole explanation.

Strength 2

I: The cognitive approach is a strong explanation for the positive symptoms of Sz.

J: The cognitive approach provides a reasonable account of the symptoms of Sz particularly the existence of verbal hallucinations which are difficult to explain using biological or social explanations. Additionally, issues with awareness of internally generated thoughts explains disorganised speech and delusions.

E: This clear explanation of a range of symptoms of Sz through the cognitive lens further validates this approach.

Weakness 2

I: However a weakness if using this explanation for Sz is that it’s difficult to establish whether faulty thinking is a cause or affect of the disorder.

J: Therefore biological explanations such as Dahoun et al (2017) concluded that DISCI_ is associated with pre synaptic dopamine dysregulation, a key factor in schizophrenia.

E: Therefore the cognitive explanation may lack credibility