Psychological Explanations Flashcards
Who’s psychodynamic explanation of schizophrenia was linked to scrizophregenic mothers?
Fromm-Reichmann
What are schizophrenic mothers and what traits do they have?
Schizophrenic mothers - mothers who cause schizophrenia → they are cold, rejecting and controlling and create a family climate of tension and secrecy. This leads to distrust and paranoid delusions and schizophrenia.
What is the double blind theory?
Conflicting family communication
A child may feel regularly trapped in situations where they fear doing the wrong thing but receive conflicting messages about what counts as wrong. They cannot express unfairness of the situation.
When the child ‘gets it wrong’ they are punished with withdrawal of love - they learn the word is confusing and dangerous, leading to disorganised thinking and delusions.
Criticism 2nd hostility lead to relapse. What explanation is this called and now can it cause schizophrenia?
Expressed emotion- level of negative emotion expressed including: verbal criticism of the person with _ schizophrenia, hostility towards them and emotional over- involvement in their life. High levels of ee can cause the onset of schizophrenia or relapse.
What is one strength of family dysfunction as a psychological explanation of schizophrenia?
Evidence linking family dysfunction to schizophrenia _ adults with schizophrenia are disproportionately likely to have insecure attachment. 69% of women and 59% of men diagnosed had previously experience physical /sexual abuse. Strongly suggesting that family dysfunction does mare people more vulnerable to schizophrenia.
One limitation is the poor evidence base for any of the explanations. What does this mean?
There’s almost no evidence to support the importance of traditional family based explanations. Both theories are based on clinical observation of patients and informal assessment of mother’s personality. Meaning family explanations have not been able to explain the link between childhood trauma and schizophrenia.
Evaluation extra - parent-blaming. Why is this a limitation:?
Research may be useful in showing childhood trauma affecting vulnerability to disorders. However, research is socially sensitive because it can lead to parent blaming. Creating additional stress for parents already seeing their child experiencing schizophrenia. Meaning family dysfunction research will always be controversial but potentially worth it.
