Biological Psychological Theories

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder often characterized by abnormal social behaviour and failure to recognize what is real. Common symptoms include false beliefs, unclear or confused thinking, auditory hallucinations, reduced social engagement and emotional expression, and inactivity. A person with schizophrenia often hears voices, experiences delusions and hallucinations and may believe thoughts, feelings and actions are controlled or shared by someone else.

Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder that affects a person’s thinking, language, emotions, social behavior and perception (Herzog & Varcarolis, 2014). The diagnosis involves identifying a range of signs and symptoms that leads to impaired occupational or social functioning (American Psychiatry Association [APA], 2014).

Schizophrenia is a complex psychotic disorder evident by impaired thinking, emotions, judgment and behaviors. The person’s grasp of reality may be so disordered that they are unable to filter sensory stimuli and may have intense perceptions of sounds, colors, and other features of their environment. Although there are different levels of severity in symptoms, the Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine (Fundukian, Ed., 2014) states that schizophrenia may typically interfere with a person 's ability to think clearly and to know the difference between reality and fantasy. People with schizophrenic symptoms have hallucinations and delusions, and often have difficulty with everyday life. It is a complicated disease that is not well understood and carries significant stigma for its sufferers.

Schizophrenia is a mental health condition that places considerable burden on the individuals who have it, their families, and society (Eack 2012). Someone who has schizophrenia may have the following symptoms, but not all: faulty perceptions, inappropriate actions and feelings, withdrawal from reality and personal relationships into fantasy and delusion, and a sense of mental fragmentation (Oxford Dictionary). The two most commonly used interventions are drug and family intervention. Often times patients with a

Schizophrenia is a severe, disabling and chronic disorder that affects people. Schizophrenia is diagnosed as a psychotic disorder. This is because a person suffering from schizophrenia cannot tell their own thoughts, perceptions, ideas, and imaginations from the reality. There is continuing debate and research as to whether schizophrenia is one condition or a combination of more than one syndrome that have related features. People suffering from schizophrenia may seem perfectly fine until the time they talk actually talk about they are thinking. People with schizophrenia rely on others for help since they cannot care for themselves of hold a job. There is no cure for schizophrenia, but there is treatment that relieves some of the symptoms. People having the disorder will cope with the symptoms all their lives. There have been cases of people suffering from schizophrenia leading meaningful and rewarding lives. There are five types of schizophrenia namely paranoid, disorganized, residual, undifferentiated, and catatonic schizophrenia. This paper will discuss paranoid schizophrenia.

(AC1) Two perspectives in psychology are the behaviourist approach and the biological (also known as physiological) approach. These perspectives consist of different theories, research methods and treatments in relation to mental illness.

Schizophrenia is characterized as a psychotic disease that dramatically affects one 's nervous system to a point of where every day basic functions can be inhibited. It is defined as the loss of contact with the external environment the person is in due to delusional thoughts and hallucinations. Perception and behavior of someone plagued with this disease is notably altered and their actions can become a concern of the people around them. Like many other diseases that affect the nervous system it is not curable at the current time but it can be treated to lessen the signs and symptoms of the disease.

Psychology is the scientific “study of the mind” (Gross, 2015) and behavior, which includes the study of humans and animals. There are various approaches in modern psychology. A theoretical approach is a perspective (view) about human behavior, there may be several different theories within an approach, but they all share these common assumptions and principles. (McLeod, 2007). A theory is an attempt by theorists to try to explain behavior. Theories are not facts but can be verified by testing. Theories can then be evaluated which I aim to do through this essay, where I will briefly explain the theoretical approaches in psychology and aim to focus on an analysis for each perspective which consist of the psychodynamic, humanist, cognitive and behavioral approaches where I will analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each approach separately.

Additional, inferences about the disorder are provided by Whitcomb and Merrell (2013). The authors characterize the symptoms of schizophrenia as delusions that are “typically bizarre and implausible” and pronounced hallucinations such as hearing voices for long periods of time (p. 363). Additional, impairments noted by the authors include “severe disturbances in perception, thought and affect, a severe decline in personal and social functioning, poor personal hygiene, inability to function effectively at school or work, and a severe impairment in social relationships” (Whitcomb and Merrell, 2013 p.363).

To say “everything psychological is simultaneously biological” means everything that is within us psychologically comes from our biological make up. This also means what our personalities consist of comes from biological parents and not from the type of environment we grow up in. All humans can be identified as identical twins, genetically. However, we all have certain genomes where the pattern is slightly changed and shapes our personality and our traits.

The psychodynamic explanation of the psychological viewpoint is based upon Freud’s theory that schizophrenia develops from two psychological processes: regression to a pre-ego stage and efforts to reestablish ego control (Comer, 2005). Freud believed that symptoms

The Biological and Psychological Trait Theories are theories that are used to try and explain deviance. Biological Trait Theory stems from the Italian School of Criminology (mid-nineteenth century), head by criminologist Cesare Lombroso. Lombroso argued that criminality was a biological trait found in humans. Lombroso’s idea of atavism connected an individual’s appearance and their biological inclination to criminal activity. The Psychological Trait Theory focused on the mental aspects of explaining criminal activity by evaluating their intelligence, personality, and learning behavior. There are three subunits of the Psychological Trait Theory, which are the psychodynamic theory, behavioral theory, and cognitive theory. Sigmund Freud developed the psychodynamic theory with his research of the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious functions of the mind. The behavioral theory is about developing human actions through learning experiences. It explains that crime is learned from life situations. People aren’t born with violent tendencies, rather it’s learned from life experiences. Three sources of this behavior are family, the media, and the environment. Cognitive theory focuses on how people perceive and mentally represent the world around them and solve problems. In the case of Jared Loughner, the psychological trait theory is the most applicable. With his diagnosis of being a paranoid schizophrenic, that connects him to both the psychodynamic perspective and

Schizophrenia is a brain disorder that manifests itself in the patient by causing drastic changes in the person 's behavior and causing other symptoms that are divided into two categories: positive symptoms and negative symptoms (Mental Health America [MHA], n.d.). The positive symptoms include delusions, hallucinations, disorganized and deluded speech, and an exhibition of inappropriate laughter, tears, and aggressiveness (MHA, n.d.). The negative symptoms include having a toneless voice, expressionless face, having rigid bodies or catatonia, and extreme apathy (MHA, n.d.). Their decline in health would be evident when the patient’s symptoms start to prevent them from excelling in their work, social life, and school (Mental Help, 2009). The most common type of delusion is that of persecution and the most common type of hallucinations are auditory (MHA, n.d.). These persecution stories can be inconsistent, meaning they do not follow a timeline. In addition, the patient is unable to give a great amount of detail about who is persecuting them, why they’re are being persecuted and when the persecution started. Another type of delusion is grandeur in which people believe they are someone important such as a respectable scientist or the president. The positive symptoms are also manifested in the early stages of the disorder and the negative symptoms are presented in the late stages of the disorder. The disorder affects about 1% of the population worldwide, and

When the news report flashes across the television informing millions around the world of the murder of a family of six, it is obvious that the initiate reaction of the civilians would be terror and hatred. This hatred, a fierce, in-tolerant force behind these people that would instantly choose the worst for whomever the suspect may be. Often, this is the reaction of the people whereas there are a few of those individuals who may decide to view this case differently. These would be psychologists. A psychologist may approach this story with a view inside of the perpetrators mind. Was he biologically, psychodynamicly, behaviorally or cognitively provoked to do such a thing? What would make someone do something

When learning the fundermantals of psychology, biology is often introduced. The origin of psychology is from philosophy and physiology. Thus it is often assumed that the study of biology is nesscasry for the study of psychology. This essay will discuss if the study of biology is essentisal for the study of psychology.