Interactionist approach Flashcards
What does the interactionist approach to schizophrenia acknowledge?
Schizophrenia results from a combination of biological, psychological, and social factors.
What are the key biological factors in schizophrenia?
Genetic vulnerability
Neurochemical and neurological abnormalities
What are the key psychological factors in schizophrenia?
Stress (e.g., trauma, high-pressure environments).
What are the key social factors in schizophrenia?
Poor family interactions (e.g., high expressed emotion, dysfunctional family relationships).
What does the diathesis-stress model suggest?
Schizophrenia develops due to both a vulnerability (diathesis) and a stressor (environmental trigger).
According to the model, what makes a person vulnerable to schizophrenia?
One or more underlying factors, such as genetics or trauma, make an individual susceptible to developing schizophrenia when triggered by stress.
What did Meehl’s model propose?
Schizophrenia is entirely genetic, caused by a single ‘schizogene’.
The gene leads to a schizotypic personality, making the person sensitive to stress.
If a person does not have the schizogene, no amount of stress will cause schizophrenia.
Chronic stress (e.g., a schizophrenogenic mother) can trigger the disorder in gene carriers.
What did Ripke et al. discover about the genetic basis of schizophrenia?
There is no single ‘schizogene’—many different genes each contribute slightly to schizophrenia risk.
What did Ingram & Luxton say about diathesis?
Psychological trauma (e.g., abuse) can be the diathesis, not just genetics.
Trauma can make the brain vulnerable, leading to schizophrenia when combined with stress.
What did Read et al. propose in the neurodevelopmental model?
Early trauma can alter brain development, making individuals more vulnerable to schizophrenia.
What did Houston et al. suggest about modern stressors?
Stress includes anything that increases schizophrenia risk.
Cannabis use is a major stressor—it can increase schizophrenia risk up to 7x.
Cannabis affects the dopamine system, but most users don’t develop schizophrenia, suggesting they lack underlying vulnerability factors.
How does the interactionist model influence schizophrenia treatment?
It combines biological treatments (antipsychotics) and psychological therapies (CBT, family therapy).
What did Turkington et al. say about treatment?
CBT + medication requires adopting an interactionist model.
It is inconsistent to say schizophrenia is purely biological but still use CBT.
How does schizophrenia treatment differ between the UK and the USA?
UK: Both medication and psychological therapies are used.
USA: Historically, only medication was used due to a divide between biological and psychological models.
