psych final paper- schizophrenia

Submitted By lys3
Words: 1835
Pages: 8

Schizophrenia
Alyssa Storey
Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College

Schizophrenia is one of the most widely known psychological disorders. Because it is so well-known, it is surrounded by many stereotypes. The amount of people that understand schizophrenia is much smaller than the amount that thinks they do. Schizophrenia consists of three groups of symptoms. There are three main perspectives with theories on this disorder, and two main treatments options. There were a few minor changes in the DSM-V regarding schizophrenia, and there have been a few recent experiments involving it. When discussing schizophrenia and its symptoms, one will focus on three kinds of symptoms. These symptoms are positive, negative, and psychomotor. Positive symptoms are symptoms that are added to a person’s average behavior. These symptoms are abnormal and affect the person’s daily functioning. The most frequent positive symptoms of schizophrenia are disorganize thinking and speech, inappropriate affect, delusions, and heightened perceptions and hallucinations (Comer 2014). Many people suffering from schizophrenia have difficulty conversing with the people around them, and often cannot convey what they are thinking. They are very frequently confused by their thoughts and surroundings, but their confusion does not make sense to people without this abnormality. People with schizophrenia are unable to attain rational thoughts, which causes them to communicate in ways that are hard for the people around them to understand. They will usually derail during their conversations. Instead of sticking to the subject of the conversation, they will quickly change in between random subjects that have no connection with the original conversation (Comer 2014). While the other person in the conversation becomes confused, the person suffering from schizophrenia will believe that they are making perfect sense and carrying on a typical conversation. Others may use words that they have created in their head, called neologisms. Neologisms appear to be normal words to the person with schizophrenia, but the person they are speaking to not only have no idea what they are saying, but has also never heard the word (Comer 2014). Another positive symptom of schizophrenia is delusion. Delusions vary depending on each case of schizophrenia. People with schizophrenia may develop delusions of reference, delusions of perseverance, delusions of control, delusions of grandeur, or more than one of these delusions. Each kind of delusion creates different problems for them, and affect their lives in different ways. Delusions of reference occur when a person gives random objects or people a new and unusual meaning. Delusions of perception, which are the most common type of delusion among people with schizophrenia, occur when people believe they are being watched by someone or something with no relevance is out to get them. This is the type of delusion that is most stereotypical and often portrayed in movies. A type of delusion that is somewhat similar to delusions of perception is delusions of control. When a person is convinced that their lives, including their thoughts and actions, are being controlled by another person, they are experiencing delusions of control (Comer 2014) The final form of delusions is delusions of grandeur which is when someone believes that they are a kind of person they are not, such as a savior of a specific people, a genius, or possibly a profound philosopher. While the people experiencing any of these delusions fully believes that they are true, they are actually only in this person’s head. Unfortunately, a person with schizophrenic delusions will not be able to be convinced that they are not seeing reality. Hallucinations are another positive symptom that often occur when dealing with schizophrenia. The most common type of hallucinations for people with schizophrenia are auditory hallucinations, which cause the person to hear sounds or