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Original post by aimsnaywux
What would everybody (who does schizophrenia) like for the essay?


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Psychological treatments please
Anyone else feels weird about diagnosis/reliability showing up? Idk, the fact that I'm writing purely A01 for 24 marks makes me really uncomfortable lol
Original post by yasx_
Does anyone have an essay or essay plan for classification and diagnosis of schizophrenia? I'm really struggling with this, I find it the hardest out of all essays. Please help!


Hope this is of use!
Discuss issues associated with the classification and/or diagnosis of schizophrenia (8 marks + 16 marks):

Issues related to the classification and diagnosis of schizophrenia (SCZ) includes reliability and validity. Reliability means that there is good consistency over time and between different clinicians diagnosis of the same patient, whereas validity refers to how accurately SCZ is diagnosed.

Issues with reliability first arise due to the main diagnostic tools having differing diagnostic criteria for SCZ. Consequently, diagnosis is inconsistent between different parts of the world, which is not helped by the DSM being culturally bias towards Americans. This was highlighted by Copeland (1971), who found that when diagnosing the same patients, US clinicians diagnosed SCZ in 69% of cases, whereas UK clinicians diagnosed SCZ in just 2% of the same cases. This raises clear issues of reliability between the ICD and DSM in diagnosing SCZ, as diagnosis should be universal. Also, despite claims for increased reliability in the DSM, there is still little evidence that the DSM is routinely used with high reliability by mental health clinicians. This was demonstrated by Whaley (2001), who found inter-rater reliability between health professionals using the DSM was as low as 0.11 in diagnosis of SCZ. This therefore implies that the DSM tool is unreliable for diagnosing SCZ. Also, there is also no physical cause that can be conclusively measured for SCZ, and so a great deal of emphasis is placed in the patients ability to report symptoms retrospectively, of which they may not accurately describe. The interpretation of symptoms is therefore subjective and down to the person doing the diagnosis. This means that varying skill, knowledge and experience of health professionals can also affect reliable diagnosis between them.

Furthermore, Rosenhan (1973) also demonstrated the limitations of diagnostic classification, after illustrating that psychiatrists could not reliably tell the difference between the sane and insane (scz sufferers). This therefore provides further evidence that there are issues with the reliability of the classification and diagnostic system of SCZ. However, the study was carried out 30 years ago and methods of diagnosis have improved, such as the the use of the standardised interview schedules to assess patients and the ICD and DSM being bought more in line with one another in order to improve the reliability diagnosis. But, the ICD and DSM still do not entirely agree on the subtypes of SCZ, with the DSM recognises 5 and the ICD 7 subtypes. This questions the reliability in diagnosis, as a sufferer could be diagnosed as one type of SCZ according the the DSM and a different type using the ICD, and this can also have major implications such as the sufferer receiving the wrong treatment.

Reliability and validity are linked together, and if health professionals cannot conclusively agree who has SCZ (low reliability), this raises the question of what it actually is (validity) and whether our understanding of it is sufficient. However, Schneider developed the First-Rank symptoms that he believed distinguished SCZ from other disorders e.g. delusions of being controlled, hearing hallucinatory voices. The belief was that the existence of these would make diagnosis more reliable and thus more valid. However, issues with validity arise as such symptoms overlap with other disorders such as depression, with Ellason and Ross noting that people with dissociative identity disorder (DID) actually have more schizophrenic symptoms than people diagnosed with it. This raises the issue of comorbidity, as symptoms that appear to fit with SCZ may be a combination of other illnesses that resemble it, therefore affecting the validity of diagnosis and making treatment difficult. However, attempts are being made to ensure that the boundaries between different disorders are clear, which will help to increase reliability and validity of SCZ diagnosis. However, misdiagnosis can have major consequences for those diagnosed as it can lead to individuals being labelled by their scz diagnosis. While labelling can be helpful in terms of providing the appropriate treatment, it can be stigmatising and lead to self-fulfilling prophecy. This highlights major ethical concerns as a person can only ever be classed as schizophrenic in remission and not cured, meaning such a label may stay with them and resultantly affect other areas of their life. Although, it could be argued that having a label for your illness is comforting to some individuals.

Another aspect of validity is the issue of prognosis. Diagnosis of schizophrenia has low predictive validity as it is unable to predict the outcome of how the disorder develops and how people respond to treatment, which also compromises the validity of diagnosis of SCZ. However, that fact that 20% do recover to their previous level of functioning does suggest that the current diagnosis of SCZ is not completely invalid.

Further issues arise as we are still unclear as to what causes SCZ, meaning classification, diagnosis and even treatment become difficult, as without knowing what causes it it is hard to fully classify. Moreover, the fact that the DSM and ICD have been revised numerous times further suggests that SCZ is not fully understood. However, revisions of the DSM and ICD does highlight that there is an increase in the current understanding of SCZ and its characteristics, and having the current diagnostic tools are arguably better than having nothing at all, as careful diagnosis can lead to effective treatment programmes, which would otherwise, not be offered.
(edited 7 years ago)
has anyone got an essay plan for classification and diagnoses of ocd
Original post by patricio_miguel
Anyone else feels weird about diagnosis/reliability showing up? Idk, the fact that I'm writing purely A01 for 24 marks makes me really uncomfortable lol


you can write about cultural bias shown by Copeland and things like that
Reply 4405
Guys I have no problem marking questions or answering questions but please be respectful that I am sitting this exam too- don't harass me...
Reply 4406
Original post by patricio_miguel
Anyone else feels weird about diagnosis/reliability showing up? Idk, the fact that I'm writing purely A01 for 24 marks makes me really uncomfortable lol


Lmao 24 marks on Rosenhan
Original post by keepdreaming-
Aw thank you :smile:. No, it's not as difficult as it sounds. Read a few things online and put them together into one set of notes.
I know right! We watched Shutter Island for Schizophrenia, interesting movie but, come on.

I was supposed to do anomalistic behaviours.
I've done relationships (switched from sleep), aggression, eating behaviours, schizophrenia and media (switched from anomalistic). Addiction sounds interesting too though. What else have you learnt?


No worries! And I guess that is true, you seem to have more tolerance than I! Yeah, I am sure it is an interesting movie too, but you can't particularly write about it in your essays?! :')

Oh nice, for PSYA3 I did bio rhythms & sleep, aggression and eating behaviour too. For PSYA4 I do depression and addiction :smile:
Ugh addiction is horrible, there is so much content to remember.. so many studies and approaches! Wished I did media like you tbh!
Hey Guys,
For my psya3 exam i used this website to plan and structure my essays:
http://a2psychologyunit3.blogspot.co.uk/ bc i found the whole loopa model answers a bit too much to fully understand. I'm doing Media and Schizophrenia and ofc research methods and was wondering if anyone knew of any places with model answers besides loopa?

Also, considering media is broken up into smaller questions how do you reckon i should go about revising it bc im planning to just go over schiz as if each topic was a 24 marker???

THANKS
Original post by patricio_miguel
Anyone else feels weird about diagnosis/reliability showing up? Idk, the fact that I'm writing purely A01 for 24 marks makes me really uncomfortable lol


For some reason I have a hunch it might be..
Original post by louise.18
Hope this is of use!
Discuss issues associated with the classification and/or diagnosis of schizophrenia (8 marks + 16 marks):

Issues related to the classification and diagnosis of schizophrenia (SCZ) includes reliability and validity. Reliability means that there is good consistency over time and between different clinicians diagnosis of the same patient, whereas validity refers to how accurately SCZ is diagnosed.

[...]

Further issues arise as we are still unclear as to what causes SCZ, meaning classification, diagnosis and even treatment become difficult, as without knowing what causes it it is hard to fully classify. Moreover, the fact that the DSM and ICD have been revised numerous times further suggests that SCZ is not fully understood. However, revisions of the DSM and ICD does highlight that there is an increase in the current understanding of SCZ and its characteristics, and having the current diagnostic tools are arguably better than having nothing at all, as careful diagnosis can lead to effective treatment programmes, which would otherwise, not be offered.


Where did you get this from lol? It's really good ! Do you know how much marks this is worth?
Original post by patricio_miguel
Anyone else feels weird about diagnosis/reliability showing up? Idk, the fact that I'm writing purely A01 for 24 marks makes me really uncomfortable lol


Actually, there's quite a bit of AO2 that you can include. I'm making my document and so far have, for that topic, 4 pieces of research evidence (not done xD)

For example reliability:
Cooper -- American psychologists, shown the same video tape as British psychologists, diagnosed schizophrenia twice as often as their British counterpart. Illustrating how the two diagnostic tools (DSM and ICD) have reliability issues amongst clinicians from different societies. (You can go on to mention the implication of this)

For example validity:
Liddle -- found three clusters of symptoms (positive, negative and cognitive disorganisation) suggesting that the term "schizophrenia" is too broad and requires distinction. This denotes schizophrenia's low descriptive validity, meaning that schizophrenia may be difficult to distinguish from other illnesses. (leading to x...y...z -- issues of the validity of classification).

Hope this helps.
hi can somebody please tell me how we are supposed to answer an application question in media
Can someone explain what the p<0.05 means in research methods? Confusing me so much!!
Reply 4414
Original post by SharinganShahz
Hey Guys,
For my psya3 exam i used this website to plan and structure my essays:
http://a2psychologyunit3.blogspot.co.uk/ bc i found the whole loopa model answers a bit too much to fully understand. I'm doing Media and Schizophrenia and ofc research methods and was wondering if anyone knew of any places with model answers besides loopa?

Also, considering media is broken up into smaller questions how do you reckon i should go about revising it bc im planning to just go over schiz as if each topic was a 24 marker???

THANKS



I'm finding it difficult to revise for media...
Original post by anniemp
Can someone explain what the p<0.05 means in research methods? Confusing me so much!!


"The probability [the result] is due to chance is less than 5%"
Is anyone else doing anomalistic because I'm finding it really difficult to learn and wanted to know if anyone had any helpful tips or resources that would be helpful?
Original post by ubiquitousking
"The probability [the result] is due to chance is less than 5%"

Thank you! Is that the same as saying a 95% confidence level? The mark scheme says "less than 5% likelihood the difference would occur if there was no real difference between the conditions". Is that just a long way of saying it haha?
Do i learn all the media questions to be 12 markers or 24 markers????
Original post by anniemp
Thank you! Is that the same as saying a 95% confidence level? The mark scheme says "less than 5% likelihood the difference would occur if there was no real difference between the conditions". Is that just a long way of saying it haha?


Yep, pretty much :smile: (to both)

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