psychological explanations Flashcards
what does the psychological approach focus on?
- focus on the psychological environment someone is in
-focus on influence of the family and its role in individuals becoming vulnerable to developing schizophrenia - large focus on cognitions and how abnormal thought processes influence the sufferers experience of SZ
what are the 2 main psychological explanations?
- family dysfunction
- cognitive explanations
family dysfunction
the presence of problems within a family that contribute to relapse rates in recovering schizophrenics including lack of warmth between parents and child, dysfunctional communication patterns, and parental overprotection:
- double bind theory
- expressed emotion
- schizophrenogenic mothers
cognitive explanations
propose that abnormalities in cognitive function are a key component of schizophrenia:
- dysfunctional thought processing - 2 kinds: meta representation and central control
what is double bind theory?
- bateson et al - children who frequently receive contradictory messages from their parents are more likely to develop schizophrenia
- e.g. mother tells son she love shim yet turns her head away in disgust - child receives 2 conflicting messages about their relationship
- these interactions prevent a coherent construction of reality - leads to schizophrenic symptoms such as flattened affect and withdrawal
double bind theory evaluation
+ berger found that schizophrenic reported a higher recall of double bind statements by their mothers that non-schizophrenics
expressed emotion - what is it?
expressed emotion is the level of emotion (negative emotion) expressed towards a patient by their carers
expressed emotion - elements
- verbal criticism of the patient, violence.
- hostility towards the patient, anger and rejection.
- emotional over-involvement in the life of a patient, needless self-sacrifice.
expressed emotion - how does this lead to schizophrenia?
- these high levels of expressed emotions in carers directed towards patients are a serious source of stress for the patient and can explain relapses in patients with schizophrenia.
- however, the source of stress may trigger the onset of schizophrenia in a person who is already vulnerable e.g due to their genetic makeup.
schizophrenogenic motehrs
schizophrenogenic, meaning schizophrenia causing.
fromm-reichmann (1948) proposed the theory of the schizophrenogenic mother.
based on reports from her own patients about their childhoods and their relationship with their mothers.
cold, rejecting and controlling mothers and a family climate characterized by tension and secrecy.
schizophrenogenic mothering leads to distrust that can later develop into paranoid delusions and, ultimately, schizophrenia.
meta representation
- the cognitive ability to reflect on thoughts and behavior and allows us insight into our own intentions and goals and interpretation of the actions of others
- dysfunction in meta representation would disrupt our ability to recognize our own actions and thoughts as being carried out by ourselves rather than someone else.
- this would explain hallucinations of voices and delusions like thought insertion.
central control
- the cognitive ability to suppress automatic responses while we perform deliberate actions instead.
- disorganised speech and thought disorder could result from the inability to central control and speech triggered by other thoughts, e.g. sufferers of schizophrenia experience derailment of thoughts and spoken sentences because each word triggers associations and the patient cannot suppress automatic responses to these.
