PAST PAPERS: SCHIZOPHRENIA: AQA A-LEVEL PSYCHOLOGY RESOURCES

PSYCHOLOGY AQA A-LEVEL UNIT 3: 7182/3

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THE SYLLABUS

CLASSIFICATION OF SCHIZOPHRENIA

• Positive symptoms of schizophrenia, including hallucinations and delusions
• Negative symptoms of schizophrenia, including speech poverty and avolition
• Reliability and validity in diagnosis and classification of schizophrenia, including reference to co-morbidity, culture and gender bias and symptom overlap

BIOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS FOR SCHIZOPHRENIA

• Genetics
• The dopamine hypothesis
• Neural correlates
• Evaluation of biological approaches

PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS FOR SCHIZOPHRENIA

• Family dysfunction
• Cognitive explanations, including dysfunctional thought processing

DRUG THERAPY

• Typical and atypical antipsychotics

PSYCHOLOGICAL THERAPIES

• Cognitive behaviour therapy
• Family therapy
• Token economies

INTERACTIONIST APPROACHES

• The Diathesis-Stress Model

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SPECIMEN PAPER 1 (AQA A-level Psychology resources)

Read the item and then answer the questions that follow.

Louise comes from a family with a history of schizophrenia, as both her grandfather and an aunt have been diagnosed with the disorder. Louise’s father has recently died from cancer and she has just moved out of the family home to start a university course. Although she has always been healthy in the past, she has just begun to experience symptoms of schizophrenia, such as delusions and hallucinations.

Using your knowledge of schizophrenia, explain why Louise is now showing symptoms of schizophrenia. [4 marks]

 

Briefly outline how cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) is used to treat schizophrenia and explain one limitation of using CBT to treat schizophrenia. [4 marks]

 

Discuss biological explanations for schizophrenia. [16 marks]

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SPECIMEN PAPER 2 (A-level Psychology notes)

Discuss reliability and/or validity in relation to the diagnosis and classification of schizophrenia. [8 marks]

A researcher investigated the effectiveness of typical and atypical psychotics in schizophrenia patients with either negative or positive symptoms.

Table 1: Percentages of patients with either negative or positive symptoms, responding well to typical or atypical antipsychotics. 

What do the data in Table 1 seem to show about the effectiveness of typical and atypical antipsychotics in the treatment of schizophrenia? [4 marks]

 

Apart from effectiveness, briefly explain one limitation of drug therapy for schizophrenia. [2 marks]

 

Briefly outline family dysfunction as an explanation for schizophrenia. [2 marks]

 

Discuss token economies as a method used in the management of schizophrenia. [8 marks]

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SPECIMEN PAPER 3 (AQA A-level Psychology notes)

Read the item and then answer the questions that follow.

Two years ago Jenny was diagnosed with schizophrenia. She has been taking a typical antipsychotic drug and there have been improvements in her positive symptoms. However she still suffers negative symptoms and side effects. Her psychiatrist wants to change her medication from typical antipsychotics to one of the atypical antipsychotics and has also suggested cognitive behavioural therapy.

Outline one negative symptom of schizophrenia. [2 marks]

 

With reference to the item above, explain why Jenny’s psychiatrist wants to move her on to one of the atypical antipsychotics. [4 marks]

 

Briefly explain one advantage of cognitive behavioural therapy in the treatment of schizophrenia. [2 marks]

 

Outline and evaluate one or more psychological explanations for schizophrenia. [16 marks]

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2017 (A-level Psychology revision notes)

Which of the following best describes neural correlates as an explanation for schizophrenia? Write A, B, C, or D in your answer book. [1 mark]

A           There is a correlation between brain plasticity and symptoms of schizophrenia.

B           There is a correlation between brain structure and function and symptoms of schizophrenia.

C           There is a correlation between dysfunctional thinking and symptoms of schizophrenia.

D           There is a correlation between size of neurons and symptoms of schizophrenia.

 

Below are four evaluative statements about token economies as used in the treatment of schizophrenia. Which statement is TRUE?

Write A, B, C, or D in your answer book. [1 mark]

A           Token economies can be used effectively in any environment.

B           Token economies have a positive effect on thinking.

C           Token economies help to promote acceptable behaviours.

D           Token economies address the cause of the problem.

 

Jack has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. He describes his family background to his therapist:

‘I could never talk to mum. She fussed over me all the time. I tried to do what she said, but could never please her. One minute she seemed all affectionate and the next minute she would make nasty comments. My dad hated all the arguments and stayed out of it.’

Describe the family dysfunction explanation for schizophrenia and explain how Jack’s experiences can be linked to the family dysfunction explanation.[8 marks]

 

Briefly discuss two limitations of the family dysfunction explanation for schizophrenia. [6 marks]

 

Outline and evaluate the use of antipsychotic drugs to treat schizophrenia [8 marks]

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2018 (AQA A-level Psychology revision notes)

In the context of schizophrenia, outline what is meant by co-morbidity. [2 marks]

 

Explain how symptom overlap might lead to problems with the diagnosis and/or classification of schizophrenia. [2 marks]

 

A psychologist investigated cognitive processing in two groups of people with schizophrenia. People in Group A showed positive symptoms of schizophrenia and people in Group B showed negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Each person completed a cognitive task and was given an overall score. The psychologist then calculated average scores for each group. The results are shown in Table 2 below.

 

Using the data in Table 2, explain how the distribution of scores in Group A differs from the distribution of scores in Group B. [4 marks]

Discuss one or more biological explanations for schizophrenia. [16 marks]

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2019 (How to revise for A-level Psychology)

Name and briefly outline one negative symptom of schizophrenia. [2 marks]

 

In a study of communication, researchers used a language rating scale to compare two groups of participants. Participants in Group A were a volunteer sample of people from a self-help group for people with schizophrenia. Participants in Group B, the control group, were a volunteer sample of people who attended a community centre.

The researchers used an inferential statistical test to see if there was a significant difference in language rating between the two groups.

Explain why a Mann-Whitney test is an appropriate choice of statistical test in this situation and a Spearman’s test is not. [2 marks]

 

Explain one reason why there might be a problem of bias and generalisation in this study. How could the researchers modify their study to deal with this problem? [4 marks]

 

Discuss the use of an interactionist approach in explaining and treating schizophrenia. [16 marks]

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2020 (Psychology A-level revision)

Briefly outline and evaluate one study of validity in relation to diagnosis of schizophrenia. [4 marks]

 

Martine has schizophrenia. She is afraid because she believes that her care workers are trying to hurt her. She hears voices telling her to lock the doors and windows so the care workers cannot get into her house. She thinks about nothing else.

Explain how a cognitive behaviour therapist might treat Martine’s symptoms. [4 marks]

 

Outline one or more biological explanation(s) for schizophrenia. Compare biological explanation(s) for schizophrenia with the family dysfunction explanation for schizophrenia. [16 marks]

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2021 (A-level Psychology revision)

What terms are used by psychologists to describe A and B below?

A           When a person has two or more disorders at the same time.

B           When two different disorders have a symptom in common.

In your answer book, write the relevant term alongside each letter. [2 marks]

 

Evaluate one psychological explanation for schizophrenia. [6 marks]

 

Jay and Mary are clinical psychologists. They each work with patients who have schizophrenia. Both Jay and Mary treat their patients without the use of drugs. Jay explains how he involves close relatives in treatment so there is less tension. Mary describes how she helps patients to gain understanding of their own thoughts and develop effective strategies to help themselves.

Describe and evaluate family therapy and cognitive behaviour therapy as treatments for schizophrenia. Refer to Jay and Mary in your answer. [16 marks]

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2022 (AQA A-level Psychology revision)

Which of the following best describes the diathesis-stress model of schizophrenia?

Write the correct letter in your answer book. [1 mark]

A           An underlying predisposition triggers the development of schizophrenia in stressful conditions.

B           Schizophrenia develops in people who have an underlying predisposition whether there are stressful conditions or not.

C           Stressful conditions trigger the development of schizophrenia in people with an underlying predisposition.

D           Stressful conditions trigger the development of schizophrenia whether people have an underlying predisposition or not.

 

Tokens are sometimes used in the management of schizophrenia. Which of the following best describes the tokens that are used in token economies?

Write the correct letter in your answer book. [1 mark]

A           Something enjoyable that is presented for good behaviour.

B           Something neutral that is presented for bad behaviour.

C           Something neutral that is presented for good behaviour.

D           Something unpleasant that is presented for bad behaviour.

 

Outline a cognitive explanation for schizophrenia and outline one limitation of this explanation. [6 marks]

 

Researchers studied therapies for schizophrenia. They assessed the mood of two groups of participants before the participants received therapy. The same participants were assessed again after four weeks of receiving therapy.

Group 1 (Drug therapy group) received drug therapy alone.

Group 2 (Combined therapy group) received a combination of drug therapy and cognitive therapy.

The researchers assessed mood using a standardised test of mood. A low score indicated negative mood and a high score indicated positive mood. Scores ranged from 0 to 100. The lowest score was 24 and the highest score was 83.

Table 1 shows the results of the study after four weeks of therapy.

 

Explain why the data in Table 1 does not enable the researchers to draw proper conclusions about the effectiveness of therapy for the two groups. What should the researchers do about this? [4 marks]

 

In this study, the mood scores were assumed to be an interval level of measurement because the test of mood was standardised. Explain how you could convert the mood scores from this study into:

i) ordinal data

and

ii) nominal data.

[4 marks]

 

Evaluate antipsychotics as a therapy for schizophrenia. [8 marks]