Interactionist explanations

Question 1

examples of biological explanation of schizophrenia ?

Answer 1

the genetic explanation
the dopamine hypothesis
neural correlates explanations

Question 2

examples of psychological explanations for schizophrenia ?

Answer 2

the cognitive explanation

the family dysfunction explanation

Question 3

evidence supporting dopamine ?

Answer 3

the dopamine hypothesis supported by drug studies, showing that drugs that increase dopamine activity cause hallucinations and delusions

Question 4

evidence supporting genetic explanations

Answer 4

The genetic explanation of schizophrenia is supported by Gottesman and Shield’s twin study.

Question 5

evidence supporting cognitive explanation of schizophrenia

Answer 5

the cognitive explanation is supported by O’Carroll’s review, which showed that 75% of schizophrenic patients had cognitive dysfunction

Question 6

evidence supporting family dysfunction explanation of schizophrenia

Answer 6

the family dysfunction explanation is showed by Berger’s interviews with schizophrenia patients, which showed that these patterns experienced more double binds in childhood

Question 7

what does the interactionist explanation of schizophrenia say

Answer 7

schizophrenia is caused by interaction between biological factors and psychological factors.

Question 8

what does it mean when a person has a diathesis for schizophrenia?

Answer 8

they carry biological risk factors that make them more likely to develop schizophrenia

Question 9

in the diathesis stress model in issues and debates what was it an example of

Answer 9

a gene- environment interaction

Question 10

according to the diathesis model

Answer 10

• people with diathesis only develop schizophrenia if they experience enough psychological stress in their environment
• the biological factors act as a risk factor that gives people a diathesis for developing schizophrenia
• the more stress people have the more likely they are to develop schizophrenia
• the more diathesis people have the more likely they are to develop schizophrenia

Question 11

how do interactionists believe the the interaction between biological and psychological factors can be explained?

Answer 11

by the diathesis- stress model

Question 12

what did Tienari et al conduct

Answer 12

an adoption study. He looked at how many children developed schizophrenia. And they found there were more children with schizophrenia in the groups whose biological mothers had schizophrenia than in the control group which supports the idea that biological factors contribute schizophrenia.

Question 13

In Tienari et al

Answer 13

gene alleles acted as a diathesis for schizophrenia. conflict in adopted family acted as stress. children only developed schizophrenia if they had both a diathesis for schizophrenia, and had experienced stress in their environment. this supports the idea that schizophrenia needs both a diathesis and a stressful environment.

Question 14

what did Tienari et al compare

Answer 14

adopted children whose biological mothers had schizophrenia. adopted children whose biological mothers didn’t have schizophrenia

Question 15

what idea that Brown and Birley’s study support

Answer 15

the idea stress acts as a trigger for the development of schizophrenia

Question 16

what did Brown and Birley do?

Answer 16

conducted interviews with patients who had recently developed schizophrenia. they found that 50% of the patients had a stressful life event in the three weeks prior to symptoms starting supporting the idea that stress triggers schizophrenia

Question 17

what does the interactionist explanation suggest causes schizophrenia

Answer 17

schizophrenia is caused by an interaction between between biological and psychological factors. biological abnormalities act as a risk factor or diathesis for schizophrenia. in individuals who already have diathesis, psychological factors experienced in their environment act as stress that can trigger schizophrenia.

Question 18

how does the interactionist approach treat schizophrenic patients

Answer 18

the interactionists approach to treating schizophrenia involves giving a patient a combination of treatments. patients are given antipsychotic medication to treat positive symptoms, and CBT, to reduce dysfunctional mental processes and reduce negative symptoms. finally the patients and their families go through family therapy to prevent relapse and reduce the stressful family environment that triggered schizophrenia

Question 19

one strength of the interactionist approach of schizophrenia

Answer 19

it is supported by a randomised controlled trial conducted by Guo et al, which showed that combining medication and therapy is more effective at treating schizophrenia that just using medication

Question 20

one limitation of the interactionist approach

Answer 20

combining the treatments are expensive but in the long run combining treatments might become cost effective in the long run. this is because patients are less likely to relapse reducing the burden of the NHS and more likely to return to work which is good for the economy

Question 21

what did Guo compare

Answer 21

patients who were just on antipsychotic medication to patients who were receiving antipsychotic medication and psychological therapy

Question 22

what were the findings to Guo study?

Answer 22

combination medication patients showed better recovery and displayed improved quality of life and they had a significantly reduced risk in relapse

Question 23

what does it mean that Guo study was a randomised controlled study?

Answer 23

it had high internal validity because the ppts variables were controlled through random allocation. and the use of a control group meant that the researchers used to establish a cause and effect relationships between the treatment and the patients recovery.