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 and neural correlates.
Psychological explanations for schizophrenia: family dysfunction and cognitive explanations, including dysfunctional thought processing.
Drug therapy: typical and atypical antipsychotics.
Cognitive behaviour therapy and family therapy as used in the treatment of schizophrenia. Token economies as used in the management of schizophrenia.
The importance of an interactionist approach in explaining and treating schizophrenia; the diathesis-stress model.