Psychological + Cognitive explanations for SZ Flashcards

1
Q

two main psychological explanations for SZ

A
  • family dysfunction
  • cognitive explanations
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2
Q

family dysfunction - explained 3 ways

A
  • psychological explanation for SZ
  • link SZ to childhood + adult experiences of living in a dysfunctional family:
  • the schizophrenogenic mother
  • double-bind theory
  • expressed emotion
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3
Q

the schizophrenogenic mother

A
  • 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
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4
Q

double bind theory

A
  • 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
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5
Q

expressed emotion (EE)

A

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

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6
Q

ads of family dysfunction as a risk factor

A
  • research support
  • childhood abuse
  • support double bind theory
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7
Q

disads of family dysfunction as a risk factor

A
  • evidence not strong
  • parent blaming
  • high EE no relapse
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8
Q

research support - ads of family dysfunction

A

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

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9
Q

childhood abuse - ads of family dysfunction

A

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

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10
Q

supports double bind theory - ads of family dysfunction

A

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

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11
Q

evidence not strong - disads of family dysfunction

A

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

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12
Q

parent blaming - disads of family dysfunction

A
  • 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
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13
Q

high EE no relapse - disads of family dysfunction

A
  • 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
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14
Q

two main cognitive explanations for SZ

A
  • metarepresentation
  • central control
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15
Q

meta representation

A
  • 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
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16
Q

central control

A
  • 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
17
Q

ads of cognitive explanations of SZ

A
  • strong evidence + stroop effect
18
Q

disads of cognitive explanations of SZ

A
  • cause + effect
  • reductionist + no bio factors
19
Q

strong evidence + stroop effect - ads of cognitive explanations

A

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

20
Q

cause + effect - disads of cognitive explanations

A

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

21
Q

reductionist + no bio factors - disads of cognitive explanations

A

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