explanations for Sz Flashcards
what are the 3 biological explanations for Sz
-genetics
-dopamine hypothesis
-neural correlates
what does genetics suggest
-that Sz is a hereditary condition
-its polygenetic- as different combinations of genes make an individual more susceptible to Sz
–levels of neurotransmitters (dopamine) can influence if someone develop Sz
what is some supporting evidence for the genetic explanation for Sz
-joesph
-tienari
what did joesph find
-carried out a meta-analyisis
-MZ twins had a 40.4% concordance
-DZ twins had a 7.4% concordance
what did tienari find
he conducted a twins study
found that of adoptees with Sz mother 6.7% of them also developed Sz
compared to adoptees without Sz mother had a 2% chance of developing Sz
what does the dopamine hypothesis believe cause the positive symptoms of Sz
-high levels of dopamine in the mesolimbic pathway which causes overactivity in this region this leads to the positive symptoms of Sz
what does the dopamine hypothesis believe cause the negative symptoms of Sz
-people with Sz have lower levels of dopamine in the frontal cortex and the underactivity causes negative symptoms.
what is some supporting evidence for the dopamine hypothesis
patel-use PET scans so assess dopamaine levels and found lower levels of dopamine in the frontal cortex in Sz patients compared to controls
what does the neural correlates explanation of Sz suggest
-Sz is caused by abnormal brain structure
-smaller frontal cortex and larger ventricles
describe some supporting evidence for neural correlates
Torrey conducted an MRI scan of people with Sz and compared it to normal brains and found that people with Sz had 15% larger ventricles than those without which supports neural explanation of Sz
what is some evidence against torrey study
However, correlation doesn’t equal causation
Don’t know which way around it is.
HOWEVER
-drugs cause side effects eg-low mood-they could also cause larger ventricles as they were on medication
what are the 3 psychological explanations of Sz
-schizophrenogeneic mother
double bind theory
-expressed emotion
what does the Schizphrenogeneic mother explanation of Sz suggest
-he proposed a psychodynamic explanation of Sz
-this focuses on the role of the mother in causing their child to develop the illness due to being cold and rejecting
-the mother uses the child to fuffil there own emotional needs
-this leads to tension and secrecy and leads to distrust and paranoia in the child
what does the double bind theory suggest
-child receives contradictory messages from there parents
-eg-contradiction between tone of voice and content
-this leads to the child feeling stressed and confused.
Pieces of supporting evidence for double bind theory
-Berger
what did berger find
he found that people with Sz reported a higher recall of double bind statements by there mother
However
-self-report measure may not be valid
what did Liem find
(opposing evidence for double-bind)
-measured patterns of parental communication in families with a Sz child and found that there was no difference compared to family with a non Sz child
what is expressed emotion
where families persistently exhibit criticism, hostility and are overly-involved in there child life
this causes stress and confusion and causes the child to develop Sz
what is some supporting evidence for expressed emotion
-hooley
-linszen
what did hooley find
Hooley conducted a meta-analysis of 26 studies and found that Sz returning to a high expressed emotion environment experiences x2 the average relapse rate
what did linszen find
patient returning to a high EE environment is X4 as likely to relapse that a patients family that is low in EE
what is some opposing evidence for expressed emotion
Altorfer found that 1-4 of patients showed no physiological response to stressful comments from there family
other evalution
perhaps having a Sz in the family is causing dysfunction rather than the other way around
what are some strengths of the family dysfunction explanation
leads to family therapies which are an effective treatment
what are the 3 cognitive factors that affect Sz
-dysfuntional thought processing
-five factor model
-anomolous experience
what are the 2 types of dysfunctional thought processing
- dysfunctional metarepresentation
- dysfunctional central control
what is dysfunctional metarepresenatation
the individual is ubale to recognise there own thought and actions and may attribute them to someone else which lead to halluciations
what is dysfunctional central control
inability to supress automatic responses.
what is some supporting evidence for dysfunctional metarepresenation
McGuire found Sz have reduced activity in the parts of the brain involvd with monitoring inner speech
what is some supporting evidence for dysfunctional central control
stirling foun with 30 SZ patients compared to 18 controls that Sz took x2 as long to do the stroop test showing that they have difficulty supressing automatic associations
what is a weakness of the cognitive explanation
-there are problems surrounding cause and effect we don’t know if cognitive deficts are causing the Sz behaviour or vice versa
puts blame onto the patient
what are some practical applications surrounding the cognitive explanation
NICE found consistent evidence when comparing with anti psychotics that CBT was more effective as reducing symptoms
the fact that this is a treatment is based on the cognitive approach provides more evidence of cognitions affecting Sz
