3 psychology question
Describe the patterns of thinking, perceiving, feeling, and behaving that characterize schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia is a group of severe disorders characterized by disorganized and delusional thinking, disturbed perceptions, and inappropriate emotions and actions. Literally, schizophrenia means “split mind,” which refers to a split from reality rather than multiple personality. As such, it is the chief example of a psychosis. The thinking of people with schizophrenia may be marked by delusions, that is, false beliefs—often of persecution or grandeur. Disorganized thoughts may result from a breakdown in selective attention. Sometimes, they also experience hallucinations, sensory experiences without sensory stimulation. Hallucinations are usually auditory and often take the form of voices making insulting statements or giving orders.
Distinguish the five subtypes of schizophrenia, and contrast chronic and acute schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia patients who are disorganized and deluded in their talk or prone to inappropriate laughter, tears, or rage are said to have positive symptoms. When appropriate behaviors are absent (for example, the schizophrenia patient has a toneless voice, expressionless face, and a mute or rigid body), the person is showing negative symptoms. The subtypes of schizophrenia include paranoid (preoccupation with delusions or hallucinations, often of persecution or grandiosity), disorganized (disorganized speech or behavior, or flat affect or inappropriate emotions), catatonic (immobility, extreme negativism, and/or parrot-like repetition of another’s speech or movements), undifferentiated (many and varied symptoms), and residual (withdrawal after hallucinations and delusions have disappeared). Chronic, or process, schizophrenia develops gradually, emerging from a long history of social inadequacy. Recovery is doubtful. Acute, or reactive, schizophrenia develops rapidly in response to particular life stresses. Recovery is much more likely.
Explain how anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder.
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder in which a normal-weight person (usually an adolescent female) diets to become significantly (15 percent or more) underweight, yet feels fat and is obsessed with losing weight.
Bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by private, binge-purge episodes of overeating, usually of high-calorie foods, followed by vomiting, laxative use, fasting, or excessive exercise.
Binge-eating disorder is marked by significant binge-eating episodes followed by remorse but not by purging, fasting, or excessive exercise.
Challenging family settings and weight-obsessed societal pressures provide fertile ground for
the growth of eating disorders. Those most vulnerable to eating disorders are also those (usually women) who most idealize thinness and have the greatest body dissatisfaction. Low self-esteem and negative emotions that interact with stressful life experiences are additional contributing factors. Twin studies suggest that eating disorders may also have a genetic component.
