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A Comparison of Academic and Lay Theories of Schizophrenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

A. Furnham  and
P. Bower
A. Furnham*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London WC1
P. Bower
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University College London
*
∗Correspondence
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Abstract

This study investigated lay subjects' theories of schizophrenia. A questionnaire examining the five identified main academic theories of schizophrenia (medical, moral–behavioural, social, psychoanalytic, and conspiratorial) along various dimensions (aetiology, behaviour, treatment, function of the hospital, and the rights and duties of both patients and society) was constructed for use in the study. The results from 106 lay respondents showed that no single model was favoured exclusively but seemed to point to a synthesis of several academic theories. The lay subjects stressed the importance of patient environment in the aetiology of schizophrenia rather than a physiological malfunction, but tended to stress the personal rights of the schizophrenic. The differences between lay and the currently dominant psychiatric models are discussed in terms of the function these models serve for each group.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 161 , Issue 2 , August 1992 , pp. 201 - 210
Copyright
Copyright © 1992 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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