Interactionist approach Flashcards
Interactionist approach
recognises that there are biological, psychological and environmental factors that may lead to schizophrenia
* consists of the diathesis-stress model
* Diathesis = vulnerability
* Stress = a negative experience
* both vulnerability to schizophrenia and stress related factors are necessary to develop the condition
* biological factors + psychological factors = schizophrenia
Original diathesis stress model
- diathesis is a gene (a single schizogene)
- stress could result in the development of the illness if the person is a carrier of the schizogene
- an example might be the schizophregenic mother or expressed emotion in the family
Modern diathesis stress model
- diathesis could be a range of genetic factors or psychological trauma. e.g. early trauma can alter the developing brain
- Read et al proposes child abuse can affect brain development such as causing the hypothalamic- pituitary adrenal systems (HPA) to become overactive, making the person much more vulnerable to later stress
- stress could be anything that risks triggering schizophrenia
Examples of biological (diathesis) and psychological (stress) factors in schizophrenia:
- Genetic inheritance - theres not a single gene but many genes increase the likelihood of developing schizophrenia (DIATHESIS)
* Expressed emotion in the family (STRESS) - Parental factors - e.g. it was found that children born after a flu epidemic where mother contracted the disease while pregnant, they were more likely to develop schizophrenia, exposure to flu is suspected of causing brain structure differences (DIATHESIS)
* childhood abuse (STRESS) - Pre-disposing neural correlates (DIATHESIS)
* schizophregenic mother (STRESS)
- in addition to psychological and biological factors combining, an individual must have weak coping strategies for developing schizophrenia
USA interactionist treatment
more common to give medication without any psychological treatment due to conflict in beliefs about the causes of the illness.
USA have been slower to believe in the interactionist model
UK interactionist treatment
combination of antipsychotic drugs and CBT
Evaluation
- For some only one type of treatment is better
- Its difficult to establish the cause of schizophrenia using interactionist treatment
+ Supportive evidence from Tienari et al (2004)
+ Supportive evidence from Tarrier et al (2004)
- For some only one type of treatment is better
Combination treatments can have a downside to them- patients receiving CBT sometimes interpret the side effects of drug treatment in a delusional manner, increasing their mistrust to resistance to further treatment.
- Its difficult to establish the cause of schizophrenia using interactionist treatment
Interactionist treatments are more effective than drug therapy alone or psychological therapy alone. Turkington argues that people often make the error of thinking that this means the interactionist approach is the most correct explanation for schizophrenia. He argues that it is wrong to think like this. He calls this treatment- causation fallacy error. This means that its difficult to establish the cause of schizophrenia when using interactionist treatment. There are too many factors involved in interactionist approach, therefore its difficult to isolate just one.
+ Supportive evidence from Tienari et al (2004)
19,000 Finnish children whose biological mothers had schizophrenia (high risk group). In adulthood, this group was compared to a control group adoptees without a family history of schizophrenia (low risk group). It was found that schizophrenia was more likely to develop in the high risk group if their adoptive parents had being showing high levels of criticism, hostility and low levels of empathy. Goes to show that interactional factors may be contributing schizophrenia.
+ Supportive evidence from Tarrier et al (2004)
Randomly allocated 315 ppts to conditions.
* Condition 1- medication + CBT
* Condition 2- medication + counselling
* Condition 3 - medication only
ppts in group 1 and 2 showed reduced symptoms following the trial. Shows a clear practical application to using an interactionist approach to schizophrenia, as it is seen as more successful.
