Schizophrenia Case Study

The Cognitive-Behavioural Aetiology of Schizophrenia

The case study suggests that the most likely principal diagnosis of Molly’s mental disorder is schizophrenia, as evidenced by the presence of its main symptoms. The cognitive-behavioural model proposes that schizophrenia develops from the presence of distorted information processing, as well as from maladaptive learning, which lead to the presence of the psychotic symptoms. This essay examines the aetiology of schizophrenia based on the cognitive-behavioural model: Beck and Rector’s cognitive theory, the five-factor theory of hallucinations, and the stress-vulnerability model. It is followed by critical evaluations of each theory.

Beck and Rector’s cognitive theory indicated that schizophrenia

Egocentric bias suggests that individuals have an excessive tendency to relate personal experiences to irrelevant events. Extreme externalizing happens when individuals favour explanations of their experiences using unlikely/impossible attributions. Clinical research supports this interpretation, by which individuals with paranoid delusions favour external stimuli that are socially threatening (Bentall & Kaney, 1989), especially when they are emotionally significant (Kinderman, 1994). In terms of disorganisations, Beck and Rector (2005) indicated that disorganised behaviours occur, not only due to neurocognitive impairment, but also the paucity of their cognitive resources, which leads to the difficulty of maintaining and adhering to the rules of

A study revealed that there are interplays between the level of stress and vulnerability based upon cellular functioning, and that there are subsequent consequences for the human brain if these conditions are present (Goh & Agius, 2010). This model expands the idea on how individuals process and react towards biological and environmental stressors in different ways.

Additionally, this model integrates several factors that are associated with the disease, not only genetic and biological factors but also the contribution of social learning. Regardless of the elaboration of various factors, this model fails to explain how being vulnerable towards the stressor could lead to the onset of positive symptoms. In other words, there is no clear link established between the vulnerability and the symptoms.

To conclude, the cognitive-behavioural model proposes that schizophrenia originates from the dysfunctional beliefs/attitudes and maladaptive learning. As a strength, the cognitive-behavioural model gives rise to the development of treatment that focuses on challenging and replacing distorted thoughts and dysfunctional behaviours, which is also known as “reality testing”. However, this model does not capture causal relationships with the biological model, which makes it difficult to establish the true link between