1
Schizophrenia
Running Head: DISORDER RESEARCH PAPER: SCHIZOPHRENIA
Psychology 1100
Invitation to the Life Span
Disorder Research Paper: Schizophrenia
Amy Crookston, Laura Franchow, Stephanie Peterson, BJ Woolston
Salt Lake Community College
2
Schizophrenia
Definition
Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder characterized by some, but not necessarily all, of the
following features: emotional blunting, intellectual deterioration, social isolation, disorganized
speech, behavior delusions, and hallucinations. Delusions are beliefs that are not true, like people
are trying to hurt them, believing other people can read their mind, or they have special abilities
or powers. Hallucinations are hearing voices that are not there. People with schizophrenia may
also see, smell, taste, and feel things that are not there. Disorganized speech is when the
individual speaks in ways that are hard to understand or uses sentences that might not make
sense. Sometimes the speech is completely incomprehensible.
Causes
Schizophrenia is quite possible the most dreaded psychological disorder there is. It is also
one of the most heavily researched (Myers, 477). Unfortunately there is no concrete evidence to
point toward one simple cause. However, there are several factors that have been researched, and
have been proven to increase vulnerability to this disorder. Genetic predisposition, brain
abnormalities, prenatal and perinatal have been discussed as an array of contributing causes.
There is no doubt that genetic predisposition enhances the probability of schizophrenia.
A child who has a biological parent that has been diagnosed with schizophrenia has
approximately a one in eight chance of developing this dreaded disorder (Berger, 407). Being a
twin also increases the risk, monozygotic twin’s concordance rate ranges from 30-50%, while a
dizygotic twin rate decreases to about 15%. While there is a considerable drop, these rates are
still...