A2 SCHIZOPHRENIA - PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS Flashcards
Describe the schizophrenogenic mother as part of the family dysfunction explanation
- A psychodynamic explanation (about early childhood experiences)
- Characterised by cold, rejecting mother which creates an env of tension and secrecy
- Tension and distrust build up which leads to dev of paranoia; leads to paranoid delusions
Evaluate the schizophrenogenic mother as part of the family dysfunction explanation
(+) Fromm-Reichmann (1948) found that her sch patients reported experiences that reflect the schizophrenogenic mother
(-) Based on self-report of delusional schizophrenics so low validity
(-) Parent-blaming theory; says dev of sch is due to personality and attitudes of mother
(-) Doesn’t show causation; mother could have developed “schizophrenogenic” tendencies as a result of having to raise a sch child, which is very stressful
(-) Ignores biological factors, which have good evidence e.g. Gottesman and Shields (1991)
Describe the double bind theory as part of the family dysfunction explanation
- Says the family env is a v important factor in the dev of sch
- Emphasises importance of communication systems
- Children dev confusion about what ‘s right or wrong due to mixed messages from family (double bind statements)
- This causes paranoid thinking, disorganised thoughts and social withdrawal
- An example of a double bind could be when a mother says “I love you” to her daughter but stiffens as she embraces her.
Evaluate the double bind theory as part of the family dysfunction explanation
(+) Berger (1965) asked sch patients if they’d experienced double bind statements in their childhood and found higher rates in sch than non-sch control
group
(-) Based on self-report of delusional schizophrenics so low validity
(-) Parent-blaming theory; socially sensitive
(-) Doesn’t show causation; double binds may arise due to stress of raising a sch child
(-) Ignores biological factors, which have good evidence e.g. Gottesman and Shields (1991)
Describe expressed emotion as part of the family dysfunction explanation
- High expressed emotion involves verbal criticism, violence, hostility, anger, rejection, and over-involvement in child’s life
- Can cause anxiety which can result in social withdrawal (links to -ve symptoms)
- More useful as an explanation of relapse than of dev
Evaluate expressed emotion as part of the family dysfunction explanation
(+) Kavanagh (1992) reviewed 26 studies of EE and found mean relapse rate of 48% in households w/ high levels of EE compared to just 21% in households w/ low levels
(-) Based on self report so subjective
(-) Parent-blaming; suggests some people’s parenting styles may leave children more vulnerable to sch
(-) Only useful as an expl of relapse; tells us v little about the development of sch
(-) No causation; high EE could be caused by stress of raising a sch child
(-) Ignores bio factors e.g. Gottesman and Shields (1991)
Describe Frith’s 1992 cognitive explanation of schizophrenia to negative symptoms and give a supporting study
Cognitive approach explains sch in terms of information processing
Shallice says we have 2 types of actions; self initiated (self-willed) and stimulus-driven (beh.al responses to env.al stimuli). Shallice proposed that sch patients w/ -ve syptoms have a deficit in the supervisory attention system which is responsible for self-initiated actions, which leads to avolition, social withdrawal and flattening affect (reduced expression of emotion)
(+) Frith and Done (1986) found that sch patients produced v few words in response to a verbal prompt from an experimenter (e.g. “name as many types of fruit as you can”); patients often said nothing, repeated a previous response or responded to some irrelevant stimulus; suggests deficit in supervisory attention system as lack of ability to self produce responses
Describe Frith’s 1992 cognitive explanation of schizophrenia to positive symptoms and give a supporting study
Frith says that patients w/ +ve symptoms have a deficit in the central monitoring system (cog process responsible for identifying something as “mine” or “done by me”)
Said that auditory hallucinations (i.e. hearing voices) are caused by when inner speech from phonological loop of WMM isn’t recognised as self generated; implies that ppl w/ auditory hallucinations would be bad at remembering if they had said something themselves or not.
(+) Bentall et al (1991) split sch patients into 2 conditions. C1 generate a list of words themselves based on a category e.g. “words beginning with the letter b”, whilst C2 just read out a list of pre-set words. One week later they were given a list of words and were asked to recall whether they’d come up with them or not; sch patients w/ +ve symptoms did sig worse than those w/out; supports idea of deficit in central monitoring system
Generally evaluate Frith’s 1992 cognitive explanation of sch
(+) Bentall et al (1991) split sch patients into 2 conditions. C1 generate a list of words themselves based on a category e.g. “words beginning with the letter b”, whilst C2 just read out a list of pre-set words. One week later they were given a list of words and were asked to recall whether they’d come up with them or not; sch patients w/ +ve symptoms did sig worse than those w/out; supports idea of deficit in central monitoring system
(+) Frith and Done (1986) found that sch patients produced v few words in response to a verbal prompt from an experimenter (e.g. “name as many types of fruit as you can”); patients often said nothing, repeated a previous response or responded to some irrelevant stimulus; suggests deficit in supervisory attention system as lack of ability to self produce responses
=> both lab studies so high control
(-) Doesn’t explain sch as a whole; just individual symptoms
(-) Most sch patients are on anti-psychotics so findings may be due to drugs
(-) Ignores bio factors e.g. Gottesman and Shields (1991)
