psychological explanation of schizophrenia Flashcards
what are the two parts of psychological explanations to schizophrenia
- family dysfunction
- cognitive explanations
what are the different parts of family dysfunction
- the schizophrenogenic mother
- double-bind theory
- expressed emotion
explain the schizophrenogenic mother as part of family dysfunction
- Proposed by Fromm-Reichmann (1948). Heard accounts of patients childhoods which led him to propose this.
- cold, rejecting and controlling.
- leads to family climate of tension and secracy
- leads to distrust that turns into paranoia and then schizophrenia.
explain the double bind theory under family dysfunction.
- proposed by Bateson et al. (1972)
- if a child constantly finds themself trapped in situations where they fear doing the wrong thing but recieved mixed messages as to what the thing is and they are unable to comment on the unfairness of the situation or seek clarification.
- when they get it wrong, which is often, the child is punished by a withdrawal of love. Leaves them with an understanding of the world thats confusing and dangerous which is refelcetd through relusions and paranoid thinking
explain expressed emotion under family dysfunction
- is the level of emotion especially negative emotion expressed towards a person with schizophrenia by their carers or family members. Contains several elements: verbal criticism, hostility, emotional overinvolvement in the life of the person.
- causes serious levels of stress and is a primary reason for relapse. Can also trigger onset of scz to someone who is vulnerable
link this to issues and debates
shows acute gender bias as it suggests women play a key destructive role in the onset of scz in a child (aplha bias bc it assumes key difference in gender).
what are the strengths to family dysfunction
- fills gap to avoid only biological explanations
- robust research findings such as that by Kavanagh (1992) show that there is a high relapse rate (48%) for shizophrenic patients who live with high EE famillies compared to 21% for those who live with low EE famillies.
what are weaknesses for dysfunctional family
- is a dangerous stereotype and part of a blame culture which has no basis in scientific fact. (Neill 1990)
- Shuhman 1967 questions the very existence of double bind theory as a risk factor for scz as its impossible to differentiate double bind from normal family communication. Therefore lacks reliability as it cannot be operationalised.
what are the different components of cognitive explanations
- dysfunctional thinking
- metarepresentation of dysfunction
- central control dysfunction
what is the role of dysfunctional thinking in cognitive explanations
- is associated with negative thinking bc of reduced thought processing in ventral striatum
- reduced processing of information in temporal and cingulate gyri is associated with hallucinations (Simon et al. 2015).
what is the role of metarepresentation dysfunction in cognitive explanations
- Frith et al
- allows the cognitive ability to reflect on our thoughts and behaviour.
- allows us insight into our own intentions and goals and to interpret others. Dysfunction in this would disrupt it.
explain the role of central control dysfunction in cognitive explanations
- issues with ability to suppress automatic responses while we perform deliberate actions. Speech poverty and thought disorder could result from inability to suppress automatic thoughts and speech triggered by thoughts.
give strengths to cognitive explanations
- research support: evidence for dysfunctional thought processing- Stirling et al 2006 compared performance on a range of cognitive tasks in 30 ppl with scz and a control group of 30 ppl without scz. Included stroop task. Ppl with scz took longer, over twice as long on average to name the font colours.
explain a weakness to cognitive explanations
- they only explain the proximinal origins of symptoms. They explain what is happening NOW to produce symptoms - as distinct from distal explanations which focus on what initially caused the condition. Cognitive theories on their own only provide partial explanations for schizophrenia.
