Interactionist approach to sz

Question 1

What are the basic ideas of the diathesis stress models ?

Answer 1

• example of interactionist approach
• suggests that a patient needs vulnerability and a stress-trigger to develop schizophrenia

Question 2

What is the old diathesis stress model ?

Answer 2

• Diathesis is entirely genetic (e.g. having 1 schizogene)
• Stress is an environmental trigger (e.g, schizophrenogenic mother)
• combination of the two leads to schizophrenia
• only looks at one factors as the diathesis and one factor as the trigger

Question 3

What is the modern diathesis stress model ?

Answer 3

• Diathesis is either biological or environmental
• Stress is either biological or environmental
• combination leads to schizophrenia
• can be multiple diathesis or multiple stress factors (not just one)

Question 4

What is an example of a biological diathesis ?

Answer 4

Ripke - 108 genetic variations, polygenic gene

Question 5

What is an example of a environmental diathesis ?

Answer 5

Psychological trauma - leads to altering the stress response - makes someone more vulnerable to schizophrenia

Question 6

What are environmental examples of triggers ?

Answer 6

Bateson = poor communication in the family means that the child is in a tense and secretive environment

Di Forti = cannabis - increases the risk of developing schizophrenia by 7 times

Question 7

How can the interactionist approach be applied to treatment ?

Answer 7

Turkinton:
- to explain and treat schizophrenia an interactionist approach should be adopted
- it is contradictory to explain someones symptoms using biological explanations but use therapy such as CBT
- if schizophrenia is caused by a combination of factors then combination therapy is appropriate
- in the UK, a combination of drug therapies and psychological therapies are used

Question 8

What is a strength of the interactionist approach to schizophrenia ?

Answer 8

Combination of biological and psychological treatments
- studies have shown that combining treatment types improves effectiveness
- Tarrier = randomly allocated 315 participants to one of 3 groups
1. Medication and CBT
2. Medication and counselling
3. Medication (control group)
- found lower symptoms for group 1 and two after the trial
- therefore interactionist approach to treatments have better outcomes

COUNTERPOINT:
- Jarvis and Okami
- treatment causation fallacy
- just because a treatment such as combination treatment worked doesn’t mean that the explanation is correct
- Because correlation doesn’t mean causation