Psychological Explanation for Schizophrenia

Question 1

What is the Family Dysfunction explanation of schizophrenia?

Answer 1

Sees maladaptive relationships & patterns of communication within families as sources of stress which can cause schizophrenia.

Question 2

What is the Double Bind Theory?

Answer 2

• Children who frequently receive contradictory messages from parents more likely to develop schizophrenia
• Eg. mum tells child she loves him whilst turning away in disgust
• These prevent development of internally
  coherent construction of reality & manifests itself as schizophrenic symptoms

Question 3

What is Expressed Emotion?

Answer 3

• A family communication style that involves criticism, hostility & emotional over-involvement
• Leads to stress beyond their already impaired coping mechanisms, triggering schizophrenic episode
• Leads to person withdrawing into themselves to escape
• Patient returning to high EE environment 4x more likely to relapse

Question 4

What is the Cognitive Explanation of schizophrenia?

Answer 4

• Dysfunctional thought processing found in schizophrenics
• Process info differently
• These processes have a role in positive symptoms

Question 5

What’s the cognitive explanation of delusions?

Answer 5

• Inadequate information processing leads to misinterpretation of experiences & formation of delusions
• Individual perceives themselves as the
  central component in events
• Leads to them jumping to conclusions - relating irrelevant events to themselves & arriving at false conclusions
• Difficult to submit to reality testing as
  patients unwilling to consider they’re wrong - impaired insight

Question 6

What’s the cognitive explanation of hallucinations?

Answer 6

• Difficult to distinguish between what’s
  imagined & what’s actually sensory based
• More likely to misattribute source of self-generated auditory experience to an external source
• These errors aren’t corrected by disconfirming evidence - don’t go through same process of reality checking others would

Question 7

What is Frith’s Attention Deficit Theory?

Answer 7

• Preconscious thought contains huge amount of info from senses that would normally be filtered
• If filtering process doesn’t happen, there will be sensory overload
• Thoughts that would normally be filtered out as unimportant are noticed & treated as significant
• This accounts for positive symptoms
• This faulty filter is underpinned by irregularity of neuronal pathways connecting hippocampus to prefrontal cortex

Question 8

What is Helmsley’s Model?

Answer 8

• Schemas allow us to quickly interpret info & process without conscious awareness
• Believes this process breaks down & schemas aren’t activated
• Leads to sensory overload
• Poor integration of memory & perception leads to disorganised thinking