2 PEEL paragraphs on the psychological explanation for schizophrenia which is the cognitive triad and selective attention theory, including strengths and weaknesses and a balanced conclusion for top band marks
down to genes. Instead, an interaction between genes and environment may be a more
credible explanation of SZ as proposed through the diathesis stress model. This is
where one may have a biological vulnerability to developing SZ, but a stressful
environment may lead them to display symptoms.
Evaluate 1 non-bio explanation of SZ (8)
One strength of attention deficit theory is that it has supporting evidence. Frith
(1979) proposed that schizophrenia results from increased self-awareness and an
inability to filter out unnecessary cognitive noise created by internal information
processing.The patient can’t make sense of this, which results in further delusions and
worsened symptoms. Frith (1992) found that cognitive deficits are linked to
abnormalities in the brain areas that use dopamine. In patients with schizophrenia, there
was reduced blood flow to the pre-frontal cortex (which is involved with attention and
self-monitoring) during certain cognitive tasks. This suggests that the underlying cause
of cognitive processing deficits are attributable to biological factors. This is a strength
as it provides scientifically credible evidence for attention deficit theory, suggesting that
it may be a valid explanation for schizophrenia. On the other hand, this explanation does
not account for the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. This means that attention
deficit theory is not a complete explanation of schizophrenia as some individuals
display only negative symptoms and schizophrenia does not necessarily manifest
through positive symptoms.
One weakness of attention deficit theory is that there is contradicting evidence.
Patients suffering from schizophrenia might have a faulty attention system, where
preconscious thought is not filtered as irrelevant. Therefore, irrelevant information
might be noticed and treated more significantly than it really is. This may lead to the
positive symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions and disorganised speech. Brain
damaged patients have problems with attention and memory as well, but they don’t
display symptoms of schizophrenia. This suggests that problems with attention and
memory in experienced by patients with schizophrenia may not be caused by the same
factor as problems with attention and memory experienced by brain damaged people.
This points out that multiple brain regions are involved in attention and memory, and
that Frith’s explanation may not necessarily apply to patients with schizophrenia, as
different brain areas might be affected across individuals with different types of
schizophrenia. This is a weakness as the attention deficit theory may not be a valid and
reliable explanation for the positive symptoms of schizophrenia. However, Beck et al.
(2009) investigated the effect of dopamine reduction on cognitive loading, and found
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