Schizophrenia Characteristics 

Schizophrenia Positive Symptoms- Delusions- Beliefs individuals hold w are not based on reality Hallucinations- Sensory experiences that may involve seeing and hearing things that are not there  Disorganised thoughts- Thoughts may be mixed up and racing, speech may be jumbled    Negative symptoms- A loss of normal functioning such as loss of speech or lack of facial expression   

Delusional Disorder  This disorder is characterised by persistent delusions In order to be diagnosed with this disorder symptoms must be experienced for at least a month, they also cant be drug induced

Symptom Assessment- This used virtual reality and was conducted by Freeman 2008. This presents a social event (being on the tube train) and it measures paranoid thinking and emotional distress. The sample that was used was 200 non-clinical students   Strengths- This study used a large sample size, the VR setting allows for a very standardised setting which increases reliability, it also uses a self report which allows for the participants view on the situation swell. Weaknesses- Not very ecologically valid as its in a virtual setting, this study uses a non-clinical population which isn't the target audience for this study, the sample is large but they are all students which reduces reliability and self reports are open to bias