Cognitive, starts biologically but further symptoms emerge when people try to make sense of hallucinations
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AO1 2 - Cognitive
Schizophrenics turn to others to confirm the validity of what they are experiencing.
Other people fail to confirm the reality, so the SZ comes to belief the others must be hiding the truth.
Reject feedback and develop delusional beliefs that they are being manipulated and persecuted by others.
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AO1 3 - Life events
stressful life events cause the onset of SZ.
Act as a trigger
May have a biological predisposition for SZ but only those with the predisposition will develop SZ
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AO1 4 - Brown and Birley
prior to a schizophrenic episode, patients reported twice as many stressful life events compared to a healthy control group.
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AO2 1 - Cognitive support
Meyer Linderberg - found a link between excess levels of dopamine in the prefrontal cortex and dysfunctions of working memory.
Working memory dysfunction is associated with cognitive disorganisation typically found in schizophrenics.
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AO2 2 - Real world applications
Basis for a form of therapy
Yellowlees et al have trialled a machine that can deliver ' virtual' auditory and visual hallucinations.
Show SZ that their hallucinations are not real.
no evidence that this will provide a successful treatment.
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AO2 3 - Brown and Birley evaluation
retrospective study where data is collected after events have occured.
Recall would be negtively affected ny events surrounding the onset of SZ - unreliable.
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AO2 4 - Prospective studies
prospective studies are preferable - data collected after event.
Hirsch et al - followed 71 SZ patients over a 48 week period.
life events made a significant contribution in the 12 months preceding the relapse rather than having a more concentrated effect in the period just prior to the episode.
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AO2 5 - Life stressors weakness
not all research supports evidence of life stressors.
Van Os et al - no link between life events and the onset of SZ.
patients who had experienced a major life event went on to have lower incidence of relapse rather than an increased risk.
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AO2 6 - Correlational
cannot infer a causal relationship
early symptoms may have been the cause of the life events.
life events may be a consequence rather than a cause.
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AO2 7 - Biological explanations
biological explanations have better research support.
large body of evidence
Gottesman - greater degree of relatedness greater risk of SZ
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