Discuss the Psychological Explanations of Schizophrenia

In 1924, Freud proposed that regression and repression of emotions could be the causes of schizophrenia. In the infantile state some symptoms of schizophrenia reflect the primitive condition whilst others reflect the sufferers attempt to regain control of their ego.

The cognitive theory states that biological factors cause the initial sensory experiences of schizophrenia and further features then appear the more an individual begins to attempt to understand their experiences. As other people fail to confirm the validity of what the schizophrenic is experiencing to them, the schizophrenics therefore begin to reject feedback from others as they assume that people are trying to hide something from them. As they believe that they are being manipulated by others, they therefore begin to develop delusional beliefs.

As schizophrenics have selective memories, to an extent they 'chose' what they pay attention to, Hemsley (1993) showed support for this as due to a schizophrenics sensory overload they cant decide which information they must pay the most attention to. This is also supported by Liddle and Morris (1991) who said that schizophrenics perform worse on the stroop test as they have a failure of willed action. This means that their behavior is determined by irrelevant stimuli, and so they therefore can not determine which they must support and which they must ignore.

There is much evidence of a physical basis for the cognitive deficits associated with schizophrenia; Lindenburg et al (2002) found that there was a link between amounts of excess dopamine in the prefrontal cortex and the extent to which the memory could be considered to be working 'well'. This is supported by Robinson and Becker (1986) who proposed that distress can have an impact on dopamine levels also, and so the more stressed a person is, the higher their levels of dopamine production are, therefore suggesting another link between cognitive and biological factors.

However, this approach could be considered reductionist as it is too simplistic as it only describes schizophrenia symptoms and not how they originate. It could therefore be said that it is lacking in aetiological validity due to the lack of evidence supporting how the condition is caused. Never the less, the implications for therapy are very useful as it acknowledges both the biological factors and the behavioral intentions.

The belief that 'madness' is a consequence of disbelieving others has received support from Yellowlees et al (2002) who developed a machine that produces virtual hallucinations in order to persuade schizophrenics that their hallucinations are not real and are simply distortions of normal behavior. However, there is no evidence that this will prove to be a successful treatment.

This is highly likely due to the ethical issues involved, the fact that the schizophrenics are being put at a risk or harm as participants and that their minds are being put at risk. This would be because they are already suffering from cognitive distortions and have trouble believing others. If they now find out that they are being 'tricked' into thinking they are seeing 'real' hallucinations when they are not, they're thoughts will become much more distorted and the implications of