interactionist approach Flashcards
what is the diathesis stress model
explains mental disorders as the result of an interaction between biology and the environmental influence
outline the diathesis of part of the diathesis stress model
it has been shown that there is a genetic components in terms of vulnerability of developing schizophrenia in that the identical twin of someone with schizophrenia is at a greater risk than a fraternal twin
however in a bout 50% of identical twins where one is diagnosed with schizophrenia, the other twin never meets the criteria, this disconcordance indicates that environmental features must play a role in if biological vulnerability is expressed or not
out line the stress part of the diathesis stress model
1) research found that children who experienced trauma before the age of 16 were 3 times more likely to develop schizophrenia compared to the general population
2) further research suggested high levels of urbanisation are associated with increased risk of developing schizophrenia- a meta analysis found an increased risk of schizophrenia in urban environments was estimated to be 2.37 times higher than rural.
however not everyone who lives in an urbanised area develops schizophrenia suggested some other factors must play a role such as a pre-existing genetic risk
outline the procedure of Tienari et al 2004
1) hospital records of 20,000 women in a Finnish psychiatric hospital were looked at and identified those who had been diagnosed at least once with a schizophrenic episode
2) the list was checked to find those mother who had one or more of their offspring adopted away - finding 145 adoptees
3) these high risk adoptees were matched with a sample of 158 without a genetic risk
4) both groups were independently assessed after a 12 year interval with a follow up after 21 years
5) family functioning was also assessed and placed on a scale
what were the findings of Tienari et al
1) of the 303 adoptees, 14 developed schizophrenia
2) of these 14, 11 were from the high risk group and 3 from the low risk group
3) however being reared in a healthy adoptive family seemed to have a protective effect even for the high risk group
4) those adopted into a low rating family (good) were less likely to develop the disorder
5) in adoptees with high genetic risks but not in low, adoptive family stress was a predictor of the development of schizophrenia
evaluate the interactionist approach
1) issue and debate= holistic approach, it identifies patients have different triggers, such as genes and the environment, this recognition allows for patients to receive a variety or different treatments which may be more effective than taking a reductionist approach and simply treating a part of the disorder
2) research against the idea that urban environments increase schizophrenia- found no urban-rural differences in mental health among women in New Zealand, although, some other studies, found evidence of urban-rural differences, showed that these differences disappeared after adjusting to the socio-economic differences for the two groups- suggests whilst social adversity may be a trigger for the onset of schizophrenia, the claim that urbanisation and social adversity are the same is an over simplification
3) it is hard to determine casual stress which triggers schizophrenia- typically the stress model makes reference to the stressful events close to the onset of schizophrenia but it is possible that stressors earlier on can also influence how people respond to stressful events and increase their susceptibility to the disorder. It was argued that maladaptive methods of coping with stress in childhood and during development causes the child to be unable t develop effective coping skills which compromises their resistance and increases vulnerability
