Psychodynamic and family based explanations of schizophrenia Flashcards
What do family based explanations of schizophrenia suggest?
Bateson (1956) proposes the double-blind theory which argues that repeated exposure to contradictory messages (contradiction between what is said and how it’s said), results in a child developing a false concept of reality and resorting be to self-deception, also an inability to communicate effectively.
- this forms the basis of later schizophrenia
Expressed emotion is a concept that Brown (1972) looked into and suggested that patients with schizophrenia are more likely to replace if being in homes with high levels of EE than homes characterised by low levels of EE.
* Tarrier et Al (1988) found a strong relationship between relapse and high levels of EE
What do psychodynamic of schizophrenia suggest?
Freud explained schizophrenia by suggesting that cold and unsupportive parents caused an individual to fixate at an early stage of development and develop childlike behaviour, such as “delusions of grandeur and disorganised speech”
Later psychodynamic theorists suggests this results from failure to resolve conflicts between the ID and the guilt of the superego.
- schizophrenics behaviour does not really resemble that of children
- not all children who have a harsh upbringing go on to develop schizophrenia
- people with schizophrenia come from a wide variety of family backgrounds, and so there is no commonality between family background and schizophrenia development
- unable to get empirical results, lack of scientific measures as it is all based on observation and self-reports
