L6 - Family Dysfunction Flashcards
Define family dysfunction
Inadequate and abnormal patterns of communication in the family
Parents can be abusive towards children, emotional/psychologically
Neglect
Marital schism
What is the double bind hypothesis?
Children are given conflicting messages from parents, such as being caring and then critical
Family dysfunction being a risk factor
What is marital schism?
Parents argue in front of children and involve them, getting them to take sides
What can marital schism cause in children?
Distress and confusion
Can start symptom development
How are children affected by the DBH?
Confusion, withdrawal, self doubt
Can’t construct internally coherent sense of reality
What do children end up fearing in the DBH?
Doing the wrong thing, resulting in punishment, e.g. parents’ love is withdrawn
What does the Expressed Emotion theory state?
Negative emotional interactions in families
Set of traits expressed by members towards schizophrenic maintaining illness
Examples of traits in EE?
Criticism and hostility towards schizophrenic
Emotional over-involvement
A study finding high EE families spoke more this listened led to what?
Schizophrenic patients had low tolerance for emotional stimuli like intense emotional comments
Felt stress and couldn’t cope - episode occurs
Criticism of DBH related to retrospective studying?
Families had to think back over a long period of time
Memory may not be accurate
Theory may not be valid
Negative evaluation of DBH related to cause and effect
Don’t know if it’s family dysfunction, neglect, etc. which cause SZ
May be after symptoms have development and diagnosis that lead to family dysfunction
Positive evaluation point related to number of double bind statements recalled?
Research found schizophrenics recalled more DB statements by mother than non-schizophrenics
Criticism of EE related to biological factors?
Can’t ignore strong evidence of biological causes
Must check family’s genetic disposition of SZ which may be what leads to cause + maintenance
Criticism related to schizophrenics being institutionalised?
Family contact time is controlled or withdraw as unsure how to act w patient
So less exposure to high EE, prob not causation
Positive evaluation of EE related to evidence of EE?
Lots of evidence to show high EE causes relapse
So strong that families with high EE agree to education and training to reduce it and chance of relapse
