individual differences schizophrenia Flashcards
2 explanations ?
- psychodynamic explanation (superhero)
- cognitive explanation (sidekick)
what was the 3 things Freud believed SZ was linked to?
- fixation
- regression
- schizophrenogenic mother
what is fixation result of?
fixation is a result of too much or little gratification during the oral stage.
fixation linked to SZ?
in a non SZ libido urges are satisfied in the oral stage through breastfeeding or having a bottle. Fried proposed that people with SZ become fixated during the first 1 or 2 months of the oral stage of development due to not getting gratification during it.
what is regression?
a defence mechanism which causes the ego to retreat back to an earlier stage (oral stage)
fixation - how to most adults statist oral demands?
through smoking, chewing gum, brushing teeth. however if the individual becomes stressed they may regress back to the oral stage.
regression linked to SZ?
when a SZ regresses to the oral stage the ego is not well developed which means the ID will operate unimpeded and symptoms of SZ which as hallucinations represent the actions of the ID and the person loses touch of reality unable to distinguish between reality and desires.
explain schizophrenogenic mother?
mother and child relationship is on eon the most crucial factors in the development of SZ. this suggests those who develop SZ have mothers who are controlling, overprotective yet rejecting and distant at the same time. this stifles with the childs emotional development leaving the individual vulnerable during stressful situations.
3 evaluation points for psychodynamic?
- inconsistant support for SZ mothers
- Freuds concepts are out of date
- overlooks the role of genetics
inconsistent support for schizophenogenic mother?
- inconsistent evidence
Mednick et al found out of a group of 207 children identified with a high risk of developing SZ due to having a SZ mother, 17 developed SZ compared to 1 child in a control of 107 - however Kasanin examined hospitals records and reported 33 out of 45 cases of SZ had maternal overprotection meaning a third of cases didn’t have a overprotective mother making it an unconvincing theory.
frueds concepts are out of date?
out of date therefore not a valid theory due to a lack of it scientific in nature we are unable to use this approach practically. this is because it is extremely difficult to test theories such as the tripartite personality and our unconscious mind without the existent of them. because we cannot test the concepts we cannot trust to explain complex theories such as SZ
cognitive approach believes that SZ is caused by?
faulty though processes caused by abnormal brain functioning in the neurological pathway between the hippocampus and pre-frontal cortex this explains the positive and negative symptoms of SZ
what did Frith propose?
he proposed that SZ have problems filtering information between conscious processing and preconscious processing. he suggests the filter between the two types of processing is defective allowing unimportant information to reach conscious awareness.
what is conscious processing?
used when we have to think and pay close attention to what we’re doing
what is precocious?
used for tasks which we can do automatically without thinking, we can usually do more than one of these tasks at the same time
how does the cognitive approach explain hallucinations?
happens through triggers such as a lack of sleep which can cause an individual to hear voices in a maladaptive way.
evaluation of cognitive approach?
not a comprehensive theory - some criticise the cognitive explanation as it is only able to explain the cognitive symptoms of SZ, other symptoms such as issues with movement are not explained. in addition, cognitive explanations don’t explain the origin of symptom deficits.
