Interaction isn’t Appraod

Question 1

What is the interscrionist approach

Answer 1

Approach that acknowledges that there are biological, psychological and societal factors in the development of SZ. Biological factors include genetic vulnerability and neurochemical and neurological abnormalities. Psychological factors include stress resulting from life events and daily hassle, I.e. expressed emotion

Question 2

What is the Diathesis stress model?

Answer 2

It states that both a vulnerability of SZ and a stress trigger are necessary in order to develop the condition. One or more underlying factors make a person particularly vulnerable to developing SZ, but the onset is triggered by stress

Question 3

What was Meehls Diathesis stress model?

Answer 3

He said there was only one gene responsible for SZ that could be triggered, called thr schizogene

Question 4

What is the modern understanding of Diathesis stress

Answer 4

Many genes increase genetic vulnerability and there is no single gene. Modern views include genes as well as psychological trauma, so trauma becomes the Diathesis rather than the stressor. Read et al proposed that early trauma to the brain such as child abuse can affect brain development, making them more vulnerable to stress

Question 5

What is the modern explanation of stress

Answer 5

It opposes to the original view that it was caused by families and bad parenting. Now stress is considered anything that risks triggering SZ. I.e. cannabis makes it 7x more likely that a person will develop schizophrenic symptoms. This is because it interferes with the dopamine system. However people who don’t do cannabis still develop SZ so there are many other risk factors

Question 6

What is the treatment through the interactionist approach

Answer 6

It acknowledges both biological and psychological factors and therefore comparable with both biological and psychological treatments. The most common is combining antipsychotics with therapies such as CBT. This becoming more prevalent and it is weird to just treat SZ with CBT or Family Therapy as it is normally done with medication

Question 7

Strengths

Answer 7

Research support for dual role of genetics and stres triggers. Tienari et al studied children adopted away schizophrenic mothers and the adoptive parents parenting style was assessed and compared to a control group of adoptees with no genetic risk. When there was high stress in the adoptee families, it was implicated in the development of SZ,

Support for effectiveness of combination of treatments - Tarrier et al randomly allocated 315 pps to medication and cbt, medication and supporting counselling group, control group. Patients in groups 1 and 2 showed lower symptoms levels than those in the control group (medication only) - but no difference in hospital re-admission. Studies like this show that there is advantage to interactionalist approach.

Question 8

Weaknessn

Answer 8

We don’t know how Diathesis stress works: there is strong evidence to suggest that some sort of underlying vulnerability coupled with stress can lead to SZ. But we don’t understand the mechanisms by which symptoms of SZ appear and how both vulnerability and stress produce them. This doesn’t undermine support for the approach but does it mean we have an incomplete understanding for the actual medication

Treatment-causation fallacy: Turkington et al argues there’s a good logical fit between the interactionist approach and using combination treatments, however just because the treatments are more effective when combined, it doesn’t mean that the interactionist approach to SZ is correct, much like just because drugs are effective, it doesn’t mean SZ is biological in origin, this error of logic is called the treatment- causation fallacy