4.4 Psychological Explanations For Scizophrenia Flashcards
define cognitive explanations
cognitive explanations of mental disorders propose that abnormalities in cognitive function are a key component of schizophrenia
define dysfunctional thought processing
cognitive habits or beliefs that cause the individual to evaluate information inappropriately
define family dysfunction
the presence of problems within a family that contribute to relapse rates in recovering schizophrenics, including lack of warmth between parents and child, dysfunctional communication patterns and parental overprotection
summarise family dysfunction as a psychological explanation for schizophrenia
double bind theory - conflicting messages within the family prevents coherent construction of reality, giving rise to schizophrenic symptoms
expressed emotion - family communication style likely to influence relapse rates. Suggests lower tolerance for intense environmental stimuli
define double bind theory when looking at development of schizophrenia
children who frequently receive contradictory messages from their parents are far more likely to develop schizophrenia
e.g. if a mother tells her son she loves him, yet at the same time turns her head away in disgust, the child receives two conflicting messages about their relationship on different communicative levels.
usually on a verbal and non-verbal level
the invalidation between the messages prevent the development of an internally coherent construction of reality.
summarise cognitive explanations as a psychological explanation for schizophrenia
cognitive explanations of delusions - egocentric bias leads person to relate irrelevant events to themselves and arrive at false conclusions
cognitive explanations of hallucinations - hallucinating individuals focus excessive attention on auditory stimuli (hypervigilance) this leads to greater expectation for stimuli; person likely to attribute to the development of these external sources
evaluate psychological explanations for schizophrenia
family dysfunction - Tienari et al. found ‘disturbed’ adoptive families more likely to trigger schizophrenia in children with genetic vulnerability
double bind theory - schizophrenics reported higher recall of double bind statements than non-schizophrenics (Berger), although other studies less conclusive
individual differences in vulnerability to expressed emotion - not all schizophrenics respond negatively to high expressed emotion. how patients appraise behaviour important
cognitive explanations - supporting evidence for cognitive model: Sarin and Wallin found evidence that positive symptoms arise from faulty processing
support from cognitive therapies - CBT more effective at reducing symptom severity than antipsychotics
integrated model - early vulnerabilities sensitise dopamine system, more dopamine released, biased processing results in paranoia/hallucinations
who proposed double bind theory
Gregory Bateson et al.
1956
define expressed emption
expressed emotion is a family communication style in which members of the family of a psychiatric patient talk about the patient in a critical or hostile manner or in a way that indicates emotional over-involvement or over-concern with the patient or their behaviour
