interactionist approach

Question 1

interactionist approach

Answer 1

acknowledges biological, psychological and societal factors in development of SZ

biological - genetic vulnerability, nuerochemical and neurological abnormality

psychological - stress from live events and poor family interactions

Question 2

mehl’s model (original diathesis stress model)

Answer 2

diathesis was entirely genetic - result of schizogene - led to development of biologically based schizotypic personality that is sensitive to stress

in carriers of schizogene, chronic stress through childhood in presence of schizophrenogenic mother could result in development of SZ

Question 3

modern understanding of diathesis

Answer 3

many genes appear to increase genetic vulnerability slightly - no single schizogene

includes factors beyond genetics - psychological trauma - trauma becomes diathesis rather than stressor

Question 4

modern understanding of stress

Answer 4

modern definition of stress - anything that risks triggering SZ

cannabis = stressor - increases risk of SZ - interferes with dopamine system. however most people don’t develop SZ after smoking cannabis so there must be more vulnerability factors

Question 5

treatment

Answer 5

combining antipsychotics with psychological therapies like CBT and family therapy

Question 6

evaluation - effectiveness

Answer 6

tarrier et al - patients receiving 20 sessions of CBT with 4 booster sessions within a year and taking antipsychotics functined better and had lower symptoms than patients receiving drugs alone or attending counselling and taking drugs

however, after 2 years these patients did no better than those taking drugs and attending counselling but both groups functioned better than those only receiving drugs

Question 7

evaluation - evidence for role of vulnerability and triggers

Answer 7

tienari et al - prospective study of 19000 adopted finnish children who had biological mothers with SZ and assessed child rearing style of adoptive family and compared to control group

child rearing style characterised by high levels of criticism and conflict and low levels of empathy was implicated in development of SZ but only for children with high genetic risk - suggests both genetic vulnerability and family related stress are important in SZ development

Question 8

evaluation - original model is over simple

Answer 8

classic model of single schizogene and schizophrenic parenting style as major source of stress is over simple

it is now believed that vulnerability can be result of early trauma as well as genetic make up and stress can come in many forms

houston et al - childhood sexual trauma emerged as vulnerability factor whilst cannabis was a trigger - shows old idea of diathesis as biological and stress as psychological is overly simple