Psychological + Cognitive explanations for SZ

Question 1

two main psychological explanations for SZ

Answer 1

• family dysfunction
• cognitive explanations

Question 2

family dysfunction - explained 3 ways

Answer 2

• psychological explanation for SZ
• link SZ to childhood + adult experiences of living in a dysfunctional family:
• the schizophrenogenic mother
• double-bind theory
• expressed emotion

Question 3

the schizophrenogenic mother

Answer 3

• a psychodynamic explanation for SZ
• a particular type of parent where the mother is cold, rejecting + controlling
  = creating family climate of secrecy + tension
• leads to child having lack of trust + later develop paranoid delusions, ultimately developing SZ
• the father is often passive + doesnt really get involved in child’s uobringing

Question 4

double bind theory

Answer 4

• focuses on family communication style
• if child receives contradictory messages from parents, they feel trapped in situations + fear doing the wrong thing (receive mixed messages about what this is)
• so the child is unable to comment about the unfairness of the situation or seek clarification
• so when the child gets it wrong = get punished by withdrawal of love
  = feeling confused + sees the world as a dangerous place
  = paranoid delusions –> SZ

Question 5

expressed emotion (EE)

Answer 5

the level of emotion, particularly negative emotion, expressed towards a patient by their carer
- high levels of EE creates serious source of stress for patient
= causing relapse
- also a trigger if the person has a genetic vulnerability

3 parts to EE:
- verbal criticism of patients + occasional violence
- hostility towards patient e.g. anger, rejection
- emotional over-involvement in patient’s life e.g. self sacrifice

Question 6

ads of family dysfunction as a risk factor

Answer 6

• research support
• childhood abuse
• support double bind theory

Question 7

disads of family dysfunction as a risk factor

Answer 7

• evidence not strong
• parent blaming
• high EE no relapse

Question 8

research support - ads of family dysfunction

Answer 8

an adoption study by Tienari, found that those adopted children who had SZ biological parents were more likely to have SZ themselves than those w/ non SZ biological parents
= however, this difference only emerged when the adopted family was rated as dysfunctional
= the illness only manifested itself under the appropriate environmental conditions
= genetic vulnerability alone is not suffiicient, family dysfunction is a contributing factor

Question 9

childhood abuse - ads of family dysfunction

Answer 9

Read et al, reviewed 46 studies of child abuse + SZ
= concluded that 69% of adult women in-patients diagnosed w/ SZ had a history of physical, sexual abuse or both in childhood
= for men = 59%
= shows family dysfunction is a contributing factor in developing SZ

Question 10

supports double bind theory - ads of family dysfunction

Answer 10

evidence to support the double bind theory + SZ
- SZnics reported a higher recall of double bind statements by their mothers than non-SZnics
= HOWEVER not reliable as patient’s recall may be affected by their SZ

Question 11

evidence not strong - disads of family dysfunction

Answer 11

evidence for family dysfunction is not very strong
= patterns of parental communication measured in families w/ a SZ child (a study)
= found no difference compared to normal families
= shows that theory may not be specifically related to SZ

Question 12

parent blaming - disads of family dysfunction

Answer 12

• one problem with the dysfunctional family explanation is that it leads to parent blaming
• parents who have already suffered seeing their child develop SZ + having to bear life-long responsibility for their care
  = will also suffer further trauma by being blamed for their child’s condition
  = family dysfunction explanations = not entirely ethical
  = may cause more harm than help to both

Question 13

high EE no relapse - disads of family dysfunction

Answer 13

• not all patients who live in EE families relapse
  + not all patients who live in low EE homes aoid relapse
• psych found that 1/4 of patients studied showed no physiological response to stressful comments from their relatives
  = shows evidence for EE as a contributing factor towards SZ relapse is very mixed

Question 14

two main cognitive explanations for SZ

Answer 14

• metarepresentation
• central control

Question 15

meta representation

Answer 15

• cognitive (psychological) explanation for SZ
• the cognitive ability to reflect on thoughts + behaviour
  = dysfunction in meta representation would disrupt this ability to recognise our own actions + thoughts as being our own rather than someone else
  = explains auditory hallucinations + delusion

Question 16

central control

Answer 16

• the cognitive ability to suppress automatic responses while we perform other actions instead
• SZ sufferers tend to experience derailment of their thoughts + what they say
  = there is too much going on in their thought processes thus they lose control of their own thoughts

Question 17

ads of cognitive explanations of SZ

Answer 17

• strong evidence + stroop effect

Question 18

disads of cognitive explanations of SZ

Answer 18

• cause + effect
• reductionist + no bio factors

Question 19

strong evidence + stroop effect - ads of cognitive explanations

Answer 19

there is strong evidence for dysfunctional thought processing in SZ:
- in a study, psych compared 30 patients diagnosed w/ SZ to 18 non-patient controls on the stroop effect (cognitive task)
- found that SZ took twice as long to say the colour of the word than controls
= study shpws that dysfunctional thought processing in SZ since they were struggling w/ seperating the colour world from the actual colour that it was

Question 20

cause + effect - disads of cognitive explanations

Answer 20

although there is lots of evidence to support the idea that SZnics have dysfunctional thought processing, its difficult to establish whether this is a cause or a consequence of SZ

Question 21

reductionist + no bio factors - disads of cognitive explanations

Answer 21

cognitive explanation fails to take into account biological factors + fails to acknowledge that dysfunctional thought processing can also be due to abnormal dopamine levels in the brain
= theory is reductionist as its simplifying SZ to very basic elements