Positive Symptoms Of Schizophrenia Research

According to the DSM-5 the definition of positive symptoms of schizophrenia consists of feeling or behavior that are other people do not experience such as hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thinking, and grossly disorganized or abnormal motor behavior, while negative symptoms consist of characteristics that are lacking thus it is made up avolition and diminished emotional expression (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Some examples of a positive symptom of schizophrenia are seeing, hearing, or smelling things that are not congruent with reality, as well as, strongly held belief such as someone is following or poisoning them. On the other hand, an example of a negative symptom of schizophrenia is avolition, anhedonia, and flat affect (Kirkpatrick, 2014). However, negative symptoms are more difficult to treat than positive symptoms. …show more content…
The controversy of the definition includes consist of possible discrimination due to stereotypes, as well as, how the diagnosis is based on western standards instead of taking other cultures into consideration. In this case individuals from various cultures tend to be misdiagnosed with schizophrenia. A study depicts that non-Western cultures tend to attribute perception like a hallucination to contact spirit or possession by spirit, but the Western society sees this as symptoms of mental illness (Bauer et al., 2011). The problem is that there is a lack of valid definitions of hallucination for all cultures. Another study depicts similar concern with the definition of positive and negative symptoms in schizophrenia in regards to western