High-Q | English פסיכומטרי

Unit 3

Text II (Questions 18-22)

Is schizophrenia a physiological disorder? It is certainly not a contagious disease, caused by a bacterium or virus. But perhaps it is an inherited disorder, like Huntington's chorea. If schizophrenia were shown to be heritable, we would have strong evidence that the disorder is physiological, perhaps caused by some sort of defect in the nervous system. 5 One of the best-known studies of the heritability of schizophrenia was performed by Kety and others. In Denmark, a record is kept of all citizens, which makes it possible to trace the family history of people with various disorders. Kety and his colleagues identified a number of schizophrenic people who had been adopted when they were children. The investigators identified the biological families, as well as the adopting 10 families, of the patients. They found that the incidence of schizophrenia in the adopting families of the patients was exactly what would be expected in the general population. Thus, it did not appear that the patients became schizophrenic because they were raised in a family of schizophrenics. However, the investigators did find an unusually high incidence of schizophrenia in the patients' biological relatives, even though they were not 15 raised by them - and probably, in most cases, did not even know them. The results clearly favor the conclusion that schizophrenia can be transmitted by means of heredity.

18. The main purpose of the text is to -

(1) discuss the differences between schizophrenia and Huntington's chorea (2) suggest that both schizophrenia and Huntington's chorea have no physiological basis

(3) investigate the causes and reasons for schizophrenia (4) argue that adoption has no impact on heritability

19. Huntington's chorea is -

(1) a similar disorder to schizophrenia (2) an inherited disorder

(3) a non-hereditary disorder (4) a type of schizophrenia

20. Kety's research took place in Denmark because -

(1) it is known to have high incidence of schizophrenia (2) families adopting sick children are especially well documented (3) records are kept of each citizen’s family history (4) adoptive families are not different from biological ones

133

©High Q Global