One of the most intriguing psychological disorders discussed in chapter fifteen is schizophrenia. The American Psychological Association defines schizophrenia as “a serious mental illness characterized by incoherent or illogical thoughts, bizarre behavior and speech, and delusions or hallucinations such as hearing voices.” It is estimated that this disease effects approximately one percent of the population across the globe. While this may seem small in the percentage aspect, that’s seventy-four million people. Of those seventy-four million people, two-hundred thousand are diagnosed yearly in the US. For a disease which little is known about the cause that is a staggering number of affected individuals.
The word schizophrenia when broken down
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Genetics and environment are considered to play a role in the development of schizophrenia. A person with a close family member with schizophrenia is ten times more likely to develop schizophrenia than a person without a close relation who also has the disease. A person’s environment plays a role in the development of schizophrenia in the “nature vs nurture” aspect of development; even though a person may have a close relative with the disease if they are raised in an environment where they are not exposed to the symptoms of schizophrenia they are less likely to develop …show more content…
Hallucinations can come in many forms but the most common is auditory, people will hear voices of people that are not there. Similar to this is delusions, many people experience severe paranoia and feel as though they are being targeted by others who may want to harm them. Schizophrenics sometimes have issues putting their thoughts into words or have trouble making their thoughts come across clearly. Confused thinking is often a part of daily life so this is not necessarily a concerning symptom at first, but combined with hallucinations and delusions it seems a daunting