Psychological Explanation Flashcards
What are three family dysfunctions effecting SZ?
- Schizophrenogenic mother
- Double bind theory
- Expressed emotion
What is the schizophrenogenic mother?
Reichmann (1948)- proposed this mother as a cold, rejecting and controlling mother who creates a family dynamic of tension and secrecy. This leads to distrust later developing into paranoid delusions and eventually SZ
What is double bind theory?
Bateson et al (1972) found children trapped in a family climate with a confusing communication style about what is right and wrong can lead to SZ. They experience a removal of love with wrongdoing and feel unable to seek clarification. Leading them with wrong understanding of the world as confusing and dangerous in symptoms like disorganised thinking and paranoid delusions. This is a risk factor
What is expressed emotion?
It is the level of emotion, in particular negative emotion expressed towards a person with SZ from their carer.
- Verbal criticism of the person
- Hostility towards them including anger and rejection
- Emotional overinvolvement in the persons life
These EE can be a source of stress and may explain relapse can trigger onset SZ in vulnerable person due to genetic makeup (Diathesis stress model)
What are the three parts of cognitive explanations?
- Dysfunctional thinking
- Metarepresentation dysfunction
- Central control dysfunction
What is dysfunctional thought processing and how does it relate to SZ?
DTP- Information processing that does not represent reality accurately and produces undesirable consequences.
SZ is characterised by disruption to normal thought processing. Reduced thought processing in the ventral striatum is associated with negative symptoms, reduced processing of information in the temporal and cingulate gyri is associated with hallucinations
What is metarepresentation dysfunction?
Frith et al- identified two kinds of dysfunctional thought processing. Metarepresentation is the cognitive ability to reflect on thoughts and behaviour giving us insight into our own intentions and goals. Dysfunction in metarepresentation would disrupt our ability to recognise our own actions and would explain hallucinations of hearing voices and thought insertion.
What is central control dysfunction?
Also identified by Frith et al, the issues with cognitive ability to suppress automatic responses while we perform deliberate actions. Speech poverty and thought disorder could result from the inability to suppress automatic thoughts and speech. People w SZ may experience derailment of thoughts because each word triggers associations
What is the summarise AO3 for both family and cognitive explanations?
Family:
- Research Support- Read et al
- Explanations lack support
Cognitive
- Research support- Stirling et al
- A proximal explanation
In depth AO3- Family Explanations?
- Research support, Read ET al found evidence linking family dysfunction to SZ. Adults with SZ are disproportionally likely to have an insecure attachment and exposure to childhood trauma. He also reported 69% of women and 59% of men have experienced physical and/ or sexual abuse. Family dysfunction makes people more vulnerable to SZ
- Poor evidence base for the explanation, no evidence to support importance of traditional family-based theory’s like schizphrenogenic mother and double bind. These theories are based on clinical observations and informal assessment of mother’s personality but not systematic evidence. Family explanations do not account for the link between childhood trauma and SZ.
In depth AO3- Cognitive Explanations
- Stirling et al (2006) supports as he compared performance on cognitive tasks between 30 people with SZ and 30 without. Tasks included strop task in which P’s name font-colours of colour-words so have to suppress tendency to read words loud. People with SZ took 2x longer cognitive processing is impaired.
-Only explains the proximal origins of symptoms. Cognitive explanations for SZ is happening now to produce symptoms- rather than focusing on what initially caused the conditions, unclear how genetic variation or childhood trauma may lead to problems with metarepresentation or central control, only rely on partial explanations for SZ
