Abnormal Psychology

ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY.

SCHIZOPHRENIA

By Aman Psychologist.

SCHIZOPHRENIA: Is the Brain break down. It is considered as a psychotic psychological disorder.

Schizophrenia affect all area of human functioning like thoughts, perception, emotion and behavior.

Schizophrenia is characterized by two major categories;

v  POSITIVE SYMPTOMS

v  NEGATIVE SYMPTOMS

POSTIVE SYMPTOMS

These are distortion or excessive of normal functioning of an individual. Positive symptoms are more likely to be treated than the Negative symptoms.

The following are the positive symptoms;

A.      Delusion ; Are the false belief that are well established and held by the individual despite the fact that are not confirmed by the culture or logic.

Delusion can be of six types;

        I.            Delusion of control. Are belief that some external forces are trying to take control of an individual thoughts, Emotions, Behaviors and Body.

      II.            Delusion of Reference. Are the belief that all happening revolve around oneself (individual).

    III.            Delusion of Grandeur . Are the belief that a person think is a fairness or more powerful than others,(very special one).

    IV.            Delusion of persecution. Are the belief that a person seems to be more targeted of others mistreatment.

      V.            Delusion of thoughts of broadcasting. Are  the belief that individual’s thoughts are being transmitted to others,

    VI.            Delusions of thought of withdrawal. Are belief that an individual thoughts are been removed from his/her own head. E.g A student complaining about his/her pass marker as are  not his/her score but her/his score has been taken by others.

B.      Hallucinations; is a sensory experience in absence of any stimulation from the environment. It can be occurred to the very small stimulation area of the environment .Example seeing , hearing things that are not there.

In Hallucination the following can be involved;

a)      Auditory sensory moderator

b)      Visual sensory moderator

c)       Tactile (touching) sensory moderator

d)      Olfactory sensory moderator. (relating to the sense of smell)

The common Auditory Hallucination are;

      Voice s that arguing.

      Hearing or own thoughts being spoken by other individual

      Voices commenting on person’s own behavior.

C.      Disorganized speech or thoughts. These are problem in organizing the speech, therefore the listener cannot understand.

Example ,

v  Loosing association; This is the continuous shifting from one story/topic to another without having any logical connection.

v  Neologism; is the tendency of using new and meaningless word in combining two words/ideas.

D.      Disorganized motor activity (ies).  This can be of the following,

v  Extreme motor activity level. This can be high or unusual (low-level activity).

v  Per curial motor (body movement/body posture.

NEGATIVE SYMPTOMS.

These behaviors persist beyond the acute episode of schizophrenia. More negative symptoms are associated with poor treatments.

Example of Negative symptoms;

1.       Avolition . Is the inability of energy to engage in daily routine activities and goal directed like studying.

2.       Anhedonia , Is an inability to feel pleasure or lack of interest in an activity or relationship.

3.       Impairment in social relationship, Example lack of friends, few friends, and poor social skills.

4.       Flat affect, this is the external expression and not interest experience . A person suffer from this is charecterised by lifeless eye and Toneless voice.

THE SUB TYPES OF SCHIZOPHRENIA.

a)      CATATONIC SCHIZOPHRENIA,  the essential feature is serious motor behavior disturbances.

Other features are;

                                                         i.            State of being unconscious/stupor. This is the decrease of responsiveness in the environment, that is spontaneous movement and mutism.

                                                       ii.            Negativism . Is the resistance to all instructions given.

                                                      iii.            Rigidly .The tendency of maintaining  a rigid body posture against all effort to be moved.

                                                     iv.            Excitement .Purposeless and excited activity.

                                                       v.            Echolalia . A tendency of having a senseless repetition of words just spoken by others.

                                                     vi.            Echopraxia .Is the senseless repetition and imitataion of the movement of another person.

b)      PARANOID SCHIZOPHRENIA. This is featured by the following;

Ø  Presence of delusion and Hallucination. The common themes are those of persecution and grandiosity. People with Paranoid Schizophrenia do not show disorder speech/behavior, but they highly resistance against any argument. These people can show arrogantly to show that are more superior.