Schizophrenia
Chapter 14
Slides & Handouts by Karen Clay Rhines, Ph.D.
American Public University System
Comer, Abnormal
Psychology, 8e
DSM-5 Update
Psychosis
Psychosis is a state defined by a loss of contact
with reality
The ability to perceive and respond to the
environment is significantly disturbed; functioning is
impaired
Symptoms may include hallucinations (false sensory
perceptions) and/or delusions (false beliefs)
Psychosis may be substance-induced or caused by
brain injury, but most psychosis appearss in the
form of schizophrenia
Comer, Abnormal Psychology, 8e
DSM-5 Update
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia affects approximately 1 in 100
people in the world
About 2.5 million Americans currently have the
disorder
The financial and emotional costs are
enormous
Sufferers have an increased risk of suicide and
physical often fatal illness
Comer, Abnormal Psychology, 8e
DSM-5 Update
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia appears in all socioeconomic
groups, but is found more frequently in the
lower levels
Leading theorists argue that the stress of poverty
causes the disorder
Other theorists argue that the disorder causes
victims from higher social levels to fall to lower
social levels and remain at lower levels
This is called the downward drift theory
Comer, Abnormal Psychology, 8e
DSM-5 Update
Schizophrenia
Equal numbers of men are women are
diagnosed
The average age of onset for men is 23 years,
compared to 28 years for women
Rates of diagnosis differ by marital status
3% of divorced or separated people
2% of single people
1% of married people
It is unclear whether marital problems are a cause or a
result
Comer, Abnormal Psychology, 8e
DSM-5 Update
The Clinical Picture of Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia produces many clinical
pictures
The symptoms, triggers, and course of
schizophrenia vary greatly
Some clinicians have argued that schizophrenia is
actually a group of distinct disorders that share
common features
Comer, Abnormal Psychology, 8e
DSM-5 Update
What Are the Symptoms of
Schizophrenia?
Symptoms can be grouped into three
categories:
Positive symptoms
Negative symptoms
Psychomotor symptoms
Comer, Abnormal Psychology, 8e
DSM-5 Update
What Are the Symptoms of
Schizophrenia?
Positive symptoms
These pathological excesses are bizarre
additions to a persons behavior
Positive symptoms include:
Delusions faulty interpretations of reality
Delusions may have a variety of bizarre content: being
controlled by others; persecution; reference; grandeur;
control
Disordered thinking and speech
May include loose associations or derailments, neologisms,
perseverations, and clang
Comer, Abnormal Psychology, 8e
DSM-5 Update
What Are the Symptoms of
Schizophrenia?
Positive symptoms include:
Loose associations (derailment):
The problem is insects. My brother used to collect insects. Hes now a
man 5 foot 10 inches. You know, 10 is my favorite number; I also like
to dance, draw, and watch TV.
Neologisms (made-up words):
It is an amorition law
Perseveration
Patients repeat their words and statements again and again
Clang (rhymes):
How are you? Well, hell, its well to tell
Hows the weather? So hot, you know it runs on a cot
Comer, Abnormal Psychology, 8e
DSM-5 Update
What Are the Symptoms of
Schizophrenia?
Positive symptoms include:
Heightened perceptions
People may feel that their senses are being flooded by sights and
sounds, making it impossible to attend to anything important
Hallucinations sensory perceptions that occur in the absence
of external stimuli
Most common are auditory
Seem to be spoken directly to, or overheard by, the hallucinator
Hallucinations can involve any of the other senses: tactile, somatic,
visual, gustatory, or olfactory
Inappropriate affect emotions that are unsuited to the
situation
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What Are the Symptoms of
Schizophrenia?
Negative symptoms
These pathological deficits are characteristics
that are lacking in an individual
Negative symptoms include:
Poverty of speech (alogia)
Reduction of quantity of speech or speech content
May also say quite a bit but convey little meaning
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What Are the Symptoms of
Schizophrenia?
Negative symptoms include:
Restricted (flat) affect
Show less emotion than most people
Avoidance of eye contact
Immobile, expressionless face
Monotonous voice, low and difficult to hear
Anhedonia general lack of pleasure or enjoyment
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What Are the Symptoms of
Schizophrenia?
Negative symptoms include:
Loss of volition (loss of motivation or directedness)
Feeling drained of energy and interest in normal goals
Inability to start or follow through on a course of action
Ambivalence conflicted feelings about most things
Social withdrawal
May withdraw from social environment and attend only to their
own ideas and fantasies
Seems to lead to a breakdown of social skills, including the ability
to accurately recognize other peoples needs and emotions
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What Are the Symptoms of
Schizophrenia?
Psychomotor symptoms
People with schizophrenia sometimes experience
psychomotor symptoms
Awkward movements, repeated grimaces, odd gestures
The movements seem to have a magical quality
These symptoms may take extreme forms,
collectively called catatonia
Includes stupor, rigidity, posturing, or excitement
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What Is the Course of
Schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia usually first appears between the
late teens and mid-30s
Many sufferers seem to experience three phases:
Prodromal beginning of deterioration; mild
symptoms
Active symptoms become apparent
Residual a return to prodromal-like levels
One-quarter of patients fully recover; three-quarters
continue to have residual problems
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What Is the Course of
Schizophrenia?
Each phase of the disorder may last for days or
years
A fuller recovery from the disorder is more likely
in people:
With good premorbid functioning
Whose disorder was triggered by stress
With abrupt onset
With later onset (during middle age)
Who receive early treatment
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Diagnosing Schizophrenia
The DSM-5 calls for a diagnosis of
schizophrenia only after symptoms of
psychosis continue for six months or more
Individuals must also show a deterioration in
their work, social relations, and ability to care
for themselves
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Diagnosing Schizophrenia
Many researchers believe that a distinction between
Type I and Type II schizophrenia helps predict the
course of the disorder
Type I schizophrenia is dominated by positive symptoms
Seem to have better adjustment prior to the disorder, later onset
of symptoms, and greater likelihood of improvement
May be linked more closely to biochemical abnormalities in the
brain
Type II schizophrenia is dominated by negative symptoms
May be tied largely to structural abnormalities in the brain
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How Do Theorists Explain
Schizophrenia?
As with many other disorders, biological,
psychological, and sociocultural theorists have
proposed explanations
Biological explanations have received the most
research support
A diathesis-stress relationship may be at work
People with a biological predisposition will develop
schizophrenia only if certain kinds of stressors or
events are also present
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Biological Views
Genetic and biological studies of
schizophrenia have dominated clinical
research in the last several decades
These studies have revealed the key roles of
inheritance and brain activity and have opened
the door to important changes in treatment
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Biological Views
Genetic factors
Following the principles of a diathesis-stress
approach, genetic researchers believe that some
people inherit a biological predisposition to
schizophrenia
This disposition (and disorder) are triggered by later
exposure to extreme stress
This theory has been supported by studies of relatives,
twins, and adoptees, and by genetic linkage studies and
molecular biology
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Biological Views
Genetic factors
Family pedigree studies have repeatedly found that
schizophrenia is more common among relatives of
people with the disorder
The more closely related they are to the person with
schizophrenia, the greater their likelihood for developing the
disorder
General population: 1%
Second-degree relatives: 3%
First-degree relatives: 10%
Factors other than genetics may explain these findings
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Biological Views
Genetic factors
Twins have received particular research study
Studies of identical twins have found that if one twin
develops the disorder, there is a 48% chance that the
other twin will do so as well
If the twins are fraternal, the second twin has a 17%
chance of developing the disorder
Again, factors other than genetics may explain these
findings
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Biological Views
Genetic factors
Adoption studies have compared adults with
schizophrenia, who were adopted as infants, with
both their biological and adoptive relatives
Because they were reared apart from their biological
relatives, similar symptoms in those relatives would indicate
genetic influences; similarities to their adoptive relatives
would suggest environmental influences
Researchers have found that the biological relatives of
adoptees with schizophrenia are more likely to display
schizophrenic symptoms than are their adoptive
relatives
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Biological Views
Genetic factors
Genetic linkage and molecular biology studies have
been used to pinpoint the possible genetic factors in
schizophrenia
These varied findings may indicate:
A case of mistaken identity that is, some of these gene sites
do not contribute to the disorder;
Different kindsof schizophrenia are linked to different genes; or
Schizophrenia, like many disorders, is a polygenic disorder, caused
by a combination of gene defects
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Biological Views
Genetic factors
Genetic factors may lead to the development of
schizophrenia through two kinds of (potentially
inherited) biological abnormalities:
Biochemical abnormalities
Abnormal brain structure
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Biological Views
Biochemical abnormalities
Over the past four decades, researchers have
developed a dopamine hypothesis to explain their
findings on schizophrenia:
Certain neurons using dopamine fire too often,
producing symptoms of schizophrenia
This theory is based on the effectiveness of
antipsychotic medications
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Biological Views
Biochemical abnormalities
Originally developed for treatment of allergies,
antipsychotic drugs were found to cause a Parkinsons
disease-like tremor response in patients
Scientists knew that Parkinsons patients had
abnormally low levels of dopamine, which caused
their shaking
This relationship between symptoms suggested that
symptoms of schizophrenia were related to excess
dopamine
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Biological Views
Biochemical abnormalities
Research since the 1960s has supported and
clarified this hypothesis
Example: patients with Parkinsons develop
schizophrenic symptoms if they take too much L-dopa,
a medication that raises dopamine levels
Example: people who take high doses of
amphetamines, which increase dopamine activity in the
brain, may develop amphetamine psychosis a
syndrome similar to schizophrenia
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Biological Views
Biochemical abnormalities
Investigators have also located the dopamine receptors to
which antipsychotic drugs bind
The drugs are apparently dopamine antagonists that bind to the
receptors, preventing dopamine binding and neuron firing
These findings suggest that, in schizophrenia, messages
traveling from dopamine-sending neurons to dopaminereceptors (particularly
D-2) may be transmitted too easily or too often
An appealing theory, because certain dopamine receptors are
known to play a key role in guiding attention
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Biological Views
Biochemical abnormalities
Dopamine may be overactive in people with
schizophrenia because of a larger-than-usual number
of dopamine receptors (particularly D-2) or their
dopamine receptors may operate abnormally
Autopsy findings have found an unusually large number of
dopamine receptors in people with schizophrenia
Imaging studies have revealed particularly high occupancy
levels of dopamine at D-2 receptors in patients with
schizophrenia
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Biological Views
Biochemical abnormalities
Though enlightening, the dopamine hypothesis
has certain problems
It has been challenged by the discovery of a new type
of antipsychotic drug (atypical antipsychotics), which
are more effective than traditional antipsychotics and
also bind to D-1 receptors and to serotonin receptors
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Biological Views
Biochemical abnormalities
Though enlightening, the dopamine hypothesis has
certain problems
It has also been challenged by theorists who claim that
excessive dopamine activity contributes primarily to the
positive symptoms of schizophrenia
These symptoms respond particularly well to conventional
antipsychotic drugs that bind to D-2 receptors
Still other studies suggest that negative symptoms may be
related to abnormal brain structure, rather than to
dopamine overactivity
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Biological Views
Abnormal brain structure
During the past decade, researchers have also linked
schizophrenia (particularly cases dominated by negative
symptoms) to abnormalities in brain structure
For example, brain scans have found that many people with
schizophrenia have enlarged ventricles the brain cavities that
contain cerebrospinal fluid
This enlargement may be a sign of poor development or damage in
related brain regions
People with schizophrenia have also been found to have smaller
temporal and frontal lobes, smaller amounts of grey matter, and
abnormal blood flow to certain brain areas
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Biological Views
Viral problems
A growing number of researchers suggest that the
biochemical and structural brain abnormalities
seen in schizophrenia result from exposure to
viruses before birth
Some of the evidence comes from animal model
investigations and other is circumstantial
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Biological Views
Viral problems
Circumstantial evidence for this theory comes from the
unusually large number of people with schizophrenia who
were born in winter months
More direct evidence comes from studies showing that
mothers of children with schizophrenia were more often
exposed to the influenza virus during pregnancy than
mothers of children without schizophrenia
Other studies have found a link between schizophrenia
and a particular group of viruses found in animals,
suggesting that people had at some point been exposed to
those particular viruses
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Biological Views
While the biochemical, brain structure, and viral
findings are beginning to shed much light on the
mysteries of schizophrenia, they offer only a
partial explanation
Some people who have these biological problems
never develop schizophrenia
Might be because biology sets the stage for the disorder, but
psychological and sociocultural factors must be present for it
to appear
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Psychological Views
When schizophrenia investigators began to
identify genetic and biological factors linked to
schizophrenia, clinicians largely abandoned
psychological theories
During the past few decades, however,
psychological factors are again being considered
important
Leading psychological explanations come from the
psychodynamic, behavioral, and cognitive perspectives
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Psychological Views
The psychodynamic explanation
Freud believed that schizophrenia develops from two
processes:
Regression to a pre-ego stage
Efforts to re-establish ego control
He proposed that when their world is extremely harsh,
people who develop schizophrenia regress to the earliest
points in their development (primary narcissism), in which
they recognize and meet only their own needs
This regression leads to self-centered symptoms such as
neologisms, loose associations, and delusions of grandeur
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Psychological Views
The psychodynamic explanation
Freuds theory posits that attempts to reestablish ego
control from such a state fail and lead to further
schizophrenic symptoms
Years later, another psychodynamic theorist elaborated on
Freuds idea of harsh parents
The theory of schizophrenogenic mothers proposed that mothers
of people with schizophrenia were cold, domineering, and
uninterested in their childrens needs
Both of these theories have received little research
support and have been rejected by most psychodynamic
theorists
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Psychological Views
The behavioral view
Behaviorists cite operant conditioning and principles of
reinforcement as the cause of schizophrenia
They propose that some people are not reinforced for
their attention to social cues and, as a result, they stop
attending to those cues and focus instead on irrelevant
cues (e.g., room lighting)
Their responses become increasingly bizarre yet are rewarded with
attention and, thus, are likely to be repeated
Support for this model has been circumstantial and the
view is considered (at best) a partial explanation
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Psychological Views
The cognitive view
Leading cognitive theorists agree that biological factors
produce symptoms
They argue that further features of the disorder emerge
because of faulty interpretation and a misunderstanding of
symptoms
Example: a man experiences auditory hallucinations and
approaches his friends for help; they deny the reality of his
sensations; he concludes that they are trying to hide the truth
from him; he begins to reject all feedback and starts feeling
persecuted
There is little clear, direct research support for this view
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Sociocultural Views
Sociocultural theorists believe that three main
social forces contribute to schizophrenia:
Multicultural factors
Social labeling
Family dysfunction
Although these forces are considered important
in the development of schizophrenia, research
has not yet clarified what their precise causal
relationships might be
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Sociocultural Views
Multicultural Factors
Rates of the disorder differ between racial and
ethnic groups
As many as 2.1% of African Americans are diagnosed,
compared with 1.4% of Caucasians
One possibility to explain this finding is that African Americans
are more prone to develop the disorder
Another explanation is that clinicians from majority groups are
unintentionally biased in their diagnoses or misread cultural
differences as symptoms of schizophrenia
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Sociocultural Views
Multicultural Factors
Rates of the disorder differ between racial and ethnic
groups
Yet another explanation may lie in the economic sphere
African Americans are more likely to be poor and, when
economic differences are controlled for, rates of schizophrenia
become closer
Consistent with the economic explanation, Hispanic Americans
who also are, on average, economically disadvantaged, appear to
have a much higher likelihood of being diagnosed than White
Americans
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Sociocultural Views
Multicultural Factors
Although the overall prevalence is stable, the
course and outcome of schizophrenia differs
between countries
Some theorists believe the differences partly reflect
genetic differences from population to population
Others argue that the psychosocial environments of
developing countries tend to be more supportive than
developed countries, leading to more favorable
outcomes for people with schizophrenia
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Sociocultural Views
Social labeling
Many sociocultural theorists believe that the features
of schizophrenia are influenced by the diagnosis itself
Society labels people who fail to conform to certain norms of
behavior
Once assigned, the label becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy
The dangers of social labeling have been well
demonstrated
Example: Rosenhan s (1973) pseudo-patient study
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Sociocultural Views
Family dysfunctioning
One of the best-known family theories of
schizophrenia focuses on double-bind
communication:
Some parents repeatedly communicate pairs of
mutually contradictory messages that place the child in
so-called double-bind situations; the child cannot avoid
displeasing the parents because nothing the child does
is right
In theory, the symptoms of schizophrenia represent the childs
attempt to deal with the double binds
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Sociocultural Views
Family dysfunctioning
Double-bind messages typically consist of a primary
verbal communication and an accompanying contradictory
nonverbal metacommunication
According to the double-bind theory, a child repeatedly
exposed to these communications will adopt a special
strategy for coping with them and may progress toward
paranoid schizophrenia
This theory is closely related to the psychodynamic notion
of a schizophrenogenic mother
It has been is popular in clinical practice but unsupported by
research
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Sociocultural Views
Family dysfunctioning
A number of studies suggest that schizophrenia is often
linked to family stress:
Parents of people with the disorder often:
Display more conflict
Have greater difficulty communicating
Are more critical of and overinvolved with their children than other
parents
Family theorists have long recognized that some families are high
in expressed emotion family members frequently express
criticism and hostility and intrude on each others privacy
Individuals who are trying to recover from schizophrenia are almost four
times more likely to relapse if they live with such a family
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Sociocultural Views
RD Laings view
Most controversial explanation of schizophrenia
Argues that the disorder is actually a constructive
process in which people try to cure themselves of the
confusion and unhappiness caused by their social
environment
Laing believed that, left alone to complete this process,
people with schizophrenia would indeed achieve a healthy
outcome
Most theorists reject this notion; research has largely
ignored it
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