Psychology
Psychology is a broad aspect that entails the study of the soul, mind and behavior of organisms especially in human beings. Psychology helps in describing an individual’s behavior and also explaining the reasons why the person behaves in a specified manner.
Psychology entails the study of the various activities of man, both bodily and mental, performed while dealing with the environment and the attributes contained therein.
It also allows for prediction of how a certain behavior could be affected by some changes as well as controlling and improving behavior through the application of the changes in an appropriate manner (Mohsin, 2002).
This paper looks at health psychology with much emphasis being given to health conditions called schizophrenia and psychosis.
The paper is composed of a matrix that gives detailed information on the major DSM IV-TR categories of schizophrenia and psychosis, and lifespan development as well as the various classifications of schizophrenia and psychosis, and lifespan development plus an essay analyzing the biological, emotional, cognitive and behavioral components (causes and symptoms of schizophrenia and psychosis, and lifespan development).
Matrix Template
The biological, emotional, cognitive and behavioral components (causes and symptoms of schizophrenia and psychosis, and lifespan development)
Schizophrenia is a broad mental disorder that is expressed through a combination of other minor mental disorders for instance psychosis. It is a collection of cognitive and behavioral characteristics usually lasting up to six or more months leading to considerable disruption of the functioning of the brain.
It is closely related to stress and depression where there are some factors that lead to lack of comfort and stability in life. Most of the causes of schizophrenia are affected by factors such as the environment one was exposed to during the early days, genetics since it could be hereditary, psychological and social process as well as neurobiology among others.
There are various causes that have been identified and linked with schizophrenia. Genes for instance play a great role in determining the probability of an individual to suffer from schizophrenia. A person whose close relations for example a parent have the disease is likely to develop it even if it is later in life (Weinberger & Harrison, 2011).
The environmental conditions can also cause schizophrenia. This could be for instance the conditions a child is exposed to before birth and during early stages of growth like stress and drug use. Prenatal factors such as poor nutrition of the mother, stress and infections also contribute a slight percentage of the total incidences of schizophrenia.
Research too shows that living in the urban areas increase the risk of suffering from schizophrenia. Social factors have a take in contributing to instances of schizophrenia to a certain degree.
They include isolation, rejection and discrimination, family related problems, poverty and unemployment. Child abuse also affects a person’s growth and has proved to cause schizophrenia later in the life of the individual.
Drug and substance abuse is another leading cause of cases of schizophrenia. They include cocaine, atropine, bromide, chloroquine, methamphetamine and cannabis, alcohol among others.
Most of the victims find themselves abusing drugs as a means of solving problems like stress and depression without dire knowledge of the consequences involved and come to suffer latter in life when the drugs and alcohol levels become unmanageable.
Some of the proximal causes of schizophrenia include brain function abnormalities (Hansell & Damour, 2008). The general symptoms of schizophrenia are classified as positive and negative symptoms.
Positive symptoms also known as type I symptoms are the pathological excesses that include aspects like hallucinations (abnormal sensory experiences where a victim perceives internally generated perceptions to be real and thus express them to the external world), disorganized thought and speech and disorganized behavior (extreme agitation, inability to carry out basic tasks and lack of proper reasoning) as well as delusions (fixed false beliefs).
Most of the positive symptoms of schizophrenia respond well to medication and are therefore easier to deal with as compared to the negative symptoms.
Negative symptoms also known as type II symptoms entail some pathological deficiency which is expressed through loss of motivation, inability to think straight and communicate, alogia, inability to experience pleasure even in processes deemed to be pleasurable, inadequate cognitive skills and capabilities, emotional flatness and withdrawal among other attributes.
The negative symptoms are less dramatic as compared to the positive symptoms but do not respond well to medication thus are difficult to clear and cause major adverse effects in the long run. As a result of this, patients with prominent negative symptoms appear to be very difficult to deal with and often become a burden to those around them.
For the various medical practitioners, for instance the psychologists, to identify the variety of symptoms displayed by individuals suffering from the different categories of schizophrenia, diagnostic strategies such as observation of the positive and negative symptoms are applied.
DSM-IV-TR also advocates for some extra efforts to be taken to ensure that the mental disorder is clearly identified and hence better intervention measures put in place and thus reducing instances of schizophrenia that would occur due to lack of proper diagnosis.
Signs of the disorder should have been present for six or more months as shown by the presence of two or more clear symptoms. There should also be instances of considerable inability of an individual to perform normally in either the social, career as well as basic daily duties.
Most people suffering from schizophrenia disorder also have a tendency of failing to recognize the fact that they suffer from the disorder due to the cognitive interruptions. They may therefore insist that they are well which may lead to resistance to medication (Hansell & Damour, 2008).
Psychosis on the other hand is a symptom that entails an individual’s detachment with normal reality. It presents itself in the form of delusions and hallucinations. It is mostly associated with schizophrenia although it occurs in other mental conditions.
Schizophrenia is a condition that is very contentious in regard to whether it should be treated as a single disorder or rather a combination of a variety of syndromes. This is due to the existence of a wide range of symptoms exhibited in different disorders as discussed above (Noll, 2007).
Conclusion
It is evident that mental disorders are a major and disturbing concept in today’s world with a majority of people suffering from them. This has been attributed to changes in lifestyles as well as poor economic conditions that add on to life pressures making it impossible for people to handle the situations hence the development of the mental disorders.
Schizophrenia is an example of a mental disorder that is very complex in terms of definition and composition but efforts, in the form of research, have been taken to clarify some of the concepts that have been contentious. Schizophrenia is associated with cognitive, behavioral, socio cultural as well as family related causes that result to different symptoms.
The complexity of this medical disorder has attracted a lot of attention among researchers in different fields in an effort to clarify some of the concepts that have proved controversial. For this reason, there is much hope that strategies to deal with this ordeal effectively will come up soon and the rates of mental disorder will be reduced if not completely eliminated.
Reference List
Hansell, J., & Damour, L. (2008). Abnormal Psychology. 2nd Ed. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons.
Mohsin, S.M. (2002). Elementary Psychology. Oxford, UK: Motilal Banarsidass Publ.
Noll, R. (2007). The Encyclopedia of Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders.3rd ed London: InfoBase Publishing.
Weinberger, R.D., & Harrison, P. (2011).Schizophrenia.3rd Ed. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons.