OxfordAQA International A Level Psychology
OxfordAQA International A Level Psychology 3.3.2 Schizophrenia Exam Questions
Free OxfordAQA International A Level Psychology revision for 3.3.2 Schizophrenia: what you need to know, common mistakes and exam-style questions with answers. Covers positive and negative symptoms, reliability and validity of diagnosis, genetic, neural and dopamine explanations, cognitive explanations and therapies.
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About OxfordAQA International A Level Psychology 3.3.2 Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is the second section of Unit 3 on the OxfordAQA International A2 Psychology course. You learn the positive symptoms, such as hallucinations and delusions, and negative symptoms, such as speech poverty and avolition, and consider the reliability and validity of diagnosis, including culture and gender bias, comorbidity and symptom overlap. You then study biological explanations, namely genetics, neural correlates and the dopamine hypothesis, and the cognitive explanation based on dysfunctional thought processing. Finally you evaluate typical and atypical antipsychotics and cognitive therapy. Examiners commonly ask you to identify symptoms in a scenario, evaluate the diagnosis and compare biological and psychological explanations or treatments.
What you need to know
- Symptoms Positive symptoms are additions to normal experience: hallucinations (false perceptions, such as hearing voices) and delusions (false beliefs, such as persecution). Negative symptoms are losses of normal function: speech poverty (reduced amount and quality of speech) and avolition (loss of motivation to start goal-directed activity).
- Reliability and validity of diagnosis Reliability is the consistency of diagnosis between clinicians or over time. Validity is whether diagnosis identifies a real, distinct disorder. Problems include culture bias (Cooper et al. found US psychiatrists diagnosed schizophrenia more often than UK psychiatrists), gender bias, comorbidity with other disorders and symptom overlap with conditions such as bipolar disorder.
- Genetic explanation Family and twin studies show risk rises with genetic relatedness. Gottesman (1991) reported concordance of about 48% for identical twins and 17% for non-identical twins. Schizophrenia appears to be polygenic.
- Dopamine and neural correlates The original dopamine hypothesis linked high dopamine activity in subcortical areas to positive symptoms; the revised version also links low dopamine in the prefrontal cortex to negative symptoms. Neural correlates include reduced activity in the ventral striatum, linked to avolition.
- Cognitive explanation Frith proposed dysfunctional thought processing: faulty metarepresentation (inability to recognise thoughts as one's own) may explain hearing voices, and faulty central control may explain disorganised speech.
- Therapies Typical antipsychotics such as chlorpromazine block dopamine receptors and reduce positive symptoms. Atypical antipsychotics such as clozapine act on dopamine and other neurotransmitters and may have fewer side effects such as tardive dyskinesia. Cognitive behaviour therapy for psychosis helps patients make sense of and challenge their experiences.
Common mistakes in 3.3.2 Schizophrenia
- Describing positive symptoms as good symptoms. Positive means additional experiences; negative means lost functions.
- Saying Gottesman's twin data prove schizophrenia is genetic. If concordance for identical twins is below 100%, environmental factors must also play a role.
- Claiming antipsychotics cure schizophrenia. They reduce symptoms but do not address causes, and relapse is common if they stop.
- Treating reliability and validity as the same thing. A diagnosis can be reliable but still not valid.
- Giving a cognitive explanation without explaining how faulty processing produces a specific symptom.
Try three 3.3.2 Schizophrenia exam-style questions
1. Identify and describe two negative symptoms of schizophrenia. (4 marks)
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Speech poverty: a reduction in the amount and quality of speech, with delays in responding; avolition: loss of motivation to begin and persist in goal-directed tasks, such as poor hygiene or lack of interest in work.
2. Explain how comorbidity could reduce the validity of diagnosing schizophrenia. (3 marks)
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Comorbidity is the occurrence of two or more disorders together; many people diagnosed with schizophrenia also have conditions such as depression or substance abuse; this suggests schizophrenia may not be a distinct disorder, making it hard to be sure the diagnosis identifies a separate condition.
3. Discuss the dopamine hypothesis as an explanation of schizophrenia. (16 marks)
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A strong answer would describe hyperdopaminergia in subcortical areas and hypodopaminergia in the prefrontal cortex in the revised hypothesis; use evidence from the effects of antipsychotics and drugs that raise dopamine; then evaluate the cause and effect problem, the role of glutamate and other neurotransmitters, the fact that atypical drugs act on serotonin too, and the reductionist nature of the explanation compared with cognitive and interactionist accounts.
3.3.2 Schizophrenia FAQs
What does OxfordAQA International A Level Psychology 3.3.2 Schizophrenia cover?
It covers the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia, the reliability and validity of diagnosis, biological and cognitive explanations, and drug and cognitive therapies.
Which unit is 3.3.2 Schizophrenia examined in?
It is examined in Unit 3 (PS03), Advanced topics and research methods 2, as one of three compulsory sections.
How should I compare explanations of schizophrenia?
Set biological explanations (genetics, neural correlates, dopamine) against the cognitive explanation and consider an interactionist view. Use evidence such as twin concordance rates, drug effects and Frith's research, and link to the issues of reductionism and determinism.
