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Description
Flashcards by Ashleigh Gildroy, updated more than 1 year ago
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Created by Ashleigh Gildroy
about 8 years ago
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| Question | Answer |
| Biological Explanations of Schizophrenia | * Genetic Factors * Biochemical Factors * Neurological Factors |
| Genetic Factors | Being related to someone with Schizophrenia can increase a person's chance of developing it. |
| Study to support | GOttesman (1991) looked at 40 twin studies Identical Twins = 48% Concordance rate (Share 100% of genes) Non-identical twins = 17% (Share 50% of genes) This shows that genetics seems to play a part in schizophrenia |
| Evaluation of Study | However, the results suggest that there must be other factors involved in the diagnosis of Schizophrenia else the results would've been 100% if the diagnosis was down to genetics. |
| Evaluation of Theory (Support) | Support comes from Shields study in which he found identical twins raised in different environments still showed 50% concordance rate (However, not 100%..) |
| Evaluation of Theory (Against) | No study has found a 100% concordance rate Other factors to be considered |
| Biochemical Factors | Postmortems and PET scans have shown that people with schizophrenia have high levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine. This had led to the dopamine hypothesis, which suggests that synapses which uses dopamine are overactive in schizophrenia patients |
| Evaluation of Theory (Support) | Antipsychotic drugs reduce the symptoms of schizophrenia by blocking dopamine receptors. This implies that dopamine is overactive, thus causing the symptoms |
| Evaluation of Theory (Support) | Drugs like amphetamines increase dopamine function, which can sometimes cause schizophrenia-like symptoms. |
| Evaluation of Theory (Against) | Antipsychotic drugs only work on the positive symptoms of schizophrenia. Therefore the dopamine hypothesis doesn't explain the negative symptoms (Avolition and Social Withdrawal) |
| Neurological Factors | Neural correlates, such as abnormalities in the brain structure can cause schizophrenia. A neural correlate is something within the brain that can be linked to a behaviour or condition |
| Evaluation of Theory (Support) | Johnstone compared the size of ventricles in the brains of people with schizophrenia with the brains of people without the disorder. They found that people with schizophrenia had enlarged ventricles, with suggests that schizophrenia is linked to a reduction in the temporal and frontal lobe volume |
| Evaluation of Theory (Against) | People without schizophrenia can have enlarged ventricles showing the relationship isn't simple |
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