psychological exp for schizo Flashcards
why are family RS important for schizo
-psychologists attempted to link schizo to childhood and adulthood experiences of living in a dysfunctional family
how is schizo linked to the schizophrenogenic mother
-mother who is cold, dominant and created conflict, caused sp to emerge in the child
-rejecting, and controlling and tend to create a family climate of tension and secrecy.
what does a schizophrengenic mother lead to for a child
leads to distrust that later develops into paranoid delusions (i.e. beliefs of being persecuted by another person) and Schizophrenia.
what is the double blind theory
-Bateson (1972) suggested that dysfunctional family communication increases the risk of sp.
-child faces conflicting messages about right and wrong, unable to seek clarification or express their distress.
what happens when a child makes mistakes in dyscuntional family
they are punished with emotional withdrawal.
what does the punishment of emotional withdrawal lead too
creates a confusing and threatening perception of the world, contributing to symptoms like disorganized thinking and paranoid delusions.
what is high expressed emotion
refers to the level of negative emotion carers direct toward a patient, including criticism, hostility, and excessive emotional involvement.
what does high ee involve
-Critical comments through both tone and content, occasionally accompanied by violence
-Hostility towards the patient, including anger and rejection
-Emotional over-involvement in the life of the patient, including needless self-sacrifice
what does high ee lead too
-create high stress levels, increasing the risk of relapse and potentially triggering schizophrenia in vulnerable individuals
-diathesis-stress model.
strengths of family dysfunction explanation
(support for Family D as risk factor)
-Reed et al (2005) found that adults with Sp are likely to have insecure attachment
- 69% of women and 59% of men with Sp have a history of physical or sexual abuse.
Morkved et al (2017) study most adults with Sp reported at least one childhood trauma, mostly abuse.
-so family D makes people more vulnerable to Schizophrenia.
weaknessses of family D as exp for schizo
(explanation lacks support)
-Evidence links childhood family-based stress to adult sp
-little support for traditional theories like the schizophrenogenic mother and double bind
- theories rely on clinical observation rather than systematic evidence, failing to explain the connection between childhood trauma and schizophrenia.
how can we evaluate parent blaming
socially sensitive as this may lead to parent blaming. For parents already having to watch their child experience the symptoms of Sp and take responsibility for their care, to be blamed adds insult to injury.
how can we talk ab cognitive exp for SP
-focuses on the role of mental processes.
-sp is associated with several types of abnormal information processing
where do reduced processing occur
- in the Ventral Striatum is associated with negative symptoms
-reduced processing of information in the temporal and cingulate gyri are associated with hallucinations. This lower than usual level of information processing suggests that cognition is likely to be impaired.
what two dysfunctional thought processing did frith et al identify
-metarepresentation and central control dysfunction
how does frith et al discuss metarepresenatation
-Metarepresentation is the cognitive ability to reflect on thoughts and actions.
-Dysfunction in this process can lead to difficulty distinguishing one’s own thoughts from external sources
-explaining symptoms like auditory hallucinations and thought insertion in schizophrenia.
how does frith et al explain central control dysfunction
-ability to suppress automatic responses while we perform deliberate actions instead.
-Disorganised speech and thought disorder result from the inability to suppress automatic thoughts and speech triggered by other thoughts.
strengths for cognitive exp
(research support)
Stirling et al (2006) compared performance on a range of cognitive tasks in 30 patients with SP with 18 non-patient including the stroop test.
-Patients with Sp took twice as long to name the ink colours as the control group.
-so cognitive processes of people with Sp are impaired.
weaknesses of cog exp for schizo
(a proximal exp)
-Proximal exp describe current causes of symptoms
-distal explanations focus on the condition’s origins, such as genetics or family influences.
-remains unclear how these factors lead to cognitive dysfunctions like impaired metarepresentation.
cognitive theories alone offer only a partial explanation for schizophrenia.
