schizophrenia: psycholgical explanations ao1

Question 1

2 types of psychological explanations

Answer 1

Family dysfunction
dysfunctional thinking

Question 2

Family dysfunction

Answer 2

Refers to abnormal communication patterns and relationships within families
- double bind
- high ee
- schiz mother

Question 3

Psychodynamic model

Answer 3

According to Freud child raised in dysfunctional family may regress back to id stage of development
Bizarre thoughts and behaviour represent egos attempt to regain control of psyche
This occurs perhaps bc of schizophrenogenic family or mothers

Question 4

who coined the term schizophrenogenic mother

Answer 4

reichman

Question 5

schizophrenogenic mother means

Answer 5

schizophrenia causing

Question 6

traits of schizophrenogenic mother and what does it lead to

Answer 6

overprotective yet cold rejecting controlling
causes tension and secrecy in the family
leads to paranoid delusions and distrust leading to schiz

Question 7

Laing and esterson 1970

Answer 7

Schiz results from an attempt to deal with confusion and unhappiness caused by an individuals family and environment
Symptom of a dysfunctional family not individual pathology

Question 8

3 types of marital issues

Answer 8

Marital schism
Marital skew
Conflict causes stress

Question 9

Explain marital schism

Answer 9

Conflict and disorder between parents
One is always trying to undermine the other
They both compete to win the affection of other family members

Question 10

Explain marital skew

Answer 10

Balance of power in family is biased toward a domaint parent
Children are encouraged to follow that parents direction
The other parent is submissive

Question 11

Explain conflict causes stress

Answer 11

Schizophrenia develops as a way of escaping conflict

Question 12

Double bind theory - Bateson 1972

Answer 12

In a double bind situation is given 2 contradictory signals by another person
Eg semone hugs you then tells you they hate you - children receiving mixed messages are more likely to develop schiz
- theyre trapped and cannot seek clarification
- getting it wrong means withdrawl of love
- created an understanding if the world which is dangerous and confusing
- leads to paranoid delusions and disorganised thinking

Question 13

Counter evidence to double bind theory

Answer 13

Liem et al 1974
Compared communication patterns in families with and without a schiz member
Abnormality in parental communication was a response to the schiz symptoms not vice versa
Therefore it’s difficult to establish which comes first
Bateson was critiqued for or confirmatory bias

Question 14

Expressed emotion theory suggests

Answer 14

High expressed emotion (anger hostility) is more likely to cause stress than an environment of low expressed emotion (support tolerance and understanding)

Question 15

high ee characteristics and what it can cause

Answer 15

verbal critiscm
hostility anger rejection
emotional over involvent

Question 16

high ee can trigger ..

Answer 16

schiz episode in someone vunerable (eg due to their genes) or relapse

Question 17

What did Vaughn and leff 1976 find about EE

Answer 17

High EE families - 51% relapse - more than 35h of contact - 69% relapse
Contact for less 35h had 28% relapse
Low EE families - 13% relapse

Question 18

What did brown 1972 find

Answer 18

Patients w schiz who returned home with high EE were more likely to relapse compared to those who returned to families with low EE

Question 19

Is expressed emotion a cause or maintaining of schiz

Answer 19

Maintains
Dysfync family is the cause - bateson 1956

Question 20

Cognitive explanations

Answer 20

Some agreement
With the biological perspective
Brain mechanisms may underpin symptoms of schizophrenia
This may be due to genetic vulnerability
The cog approach suggests that the symptoms develop because the patient tries to make sense of their unusual sensory experiences

Question 21

Who had the theory of dysfunctional thinking

Answer 21

friths et al

Question 22

frith et al 1992 identified 2 types of dysfunctional thought processing what are they

Answer 22

• metarepresentation
• central control

Question 23

3 cognitive deficits in schizophrenia

Answer 23

• inability to focus attention
• failure to utilise schema
• failure to understand context of situation

Question 24

Explain inability to focus attention

Answer 24

Cannot focus on one thing at one time
Senses overloaded with external stimuli
Lead to +ve symptoms
Disorganised though and speech
-ve symptoms
Speech poverty

Question 25

Explain failure to utilise schemas

Answer 25

Helmsley 1933 suggests that schizophrenics do not use schemas so each situation treated as novel which can be overwhelming confusijf and exhausting Internal thoughts aren’t recognised as coming from memory and so are attributed to external sources (explains auditory hallucinations)

Question 26

Explain meta representation

Answer 26

the ability to reflect on thoughts and behaviour allowing insight into our own intentions and of others Dysfunction in this would distrupt our ability to recognise our own thoughts as being carried out by ourselves explaining auditory hallucination and thought insertion eg their thoughts are being put into their mind from somebody else

Question 27

Explain central control

Answer 27

Cognitive Ability to suppress automatic responses whilst we perform deliberate actions instead Disorganised speech and thought disorder could result from the inability to suppress automatic thoughts and speech triggered by other thoughts

Question 28

Outline psychological explanations for schizophrenia (6)

Answer 28

Research into psychological explanations for schizophrenia focus on the role of the family (family dysfunction) and the role of faulty information processes (cognitive explanations) as risk factors for developing schizophrenia. One theory of family dysfunction emphasises the impact of negative expressed emotion. This refers to a high level of negative emotion expressed towards the patient by the carers who are often family members. For example verbal criticism, physical violence, hostility, anger and rejection. This is a serious source of stress for the patient which can lead to relapse in patients with schizophrenia, but can also cause the onset of schizophrenia in people who are already vulnerable, for example, due to their genetic makeup. In terms of cognitive explanations, Frith et al. (1992) suggested faulty meta-representation and central control may be the cause of schizophrenia. Central control, refers to our ability to suppress automatic responses while we perform deliberate actions. Symptoms like speech poverty, speech disorder and thought disorder could result from this inability because each thought triggers other thoughts and speech. For example, people with schizophrenia tend to experience what is known as the derailment of thoughts because each word triggers associations and the person cannot suppress automatic responses to these.