Psychological Explanations

Question 1

Family dysfunction

Answer 1

There have been attempts to link sz to childhood and adult experiences of living in a dysfunctional family

Question 2

Schizophrenigenic mother

Answer 2

Fromme-reichman 1948

Proposed psychodynamic explanation based on the accounts she heard from patients.
May spoke of particular type of parent called sz mother
The mother is cold and rejecting this leads to distrust and later paranoid delusions ultimately sz

Question 3

Double bind theory Bateson et al

Answer 3

Agreed family climate is important in development of sz
Child finds themselves trapped in situations where they feel they are doing something wrong
When they get it wrong they are punished with a withdrawal of love
This leave them with the understanding that the world is dangerous

Question 4

Expressed emotion and sz

Answer 4

The level of emotion expressed toward a patients by their carers
Contains several elements:
Verbal criticism of patient
Hostility towards the patient
Emotional over involvement
High levels of EE are a cause of stress which is primarily explanation for relapse

Question 5

Weak evidence for family based explanations

Answer 5

Very little evidence to support schizophrenogenic mother and double blind theory

Question 6

Strong evidence for dysfunctional information processing

Answer 6

Information is thought to be processed in the mind of sz sufferers differently

Question 7

Stirling et al 2006 evaluation for dysfunctional information processing

Answer 7

Compared 30 patients with diagnosis of sz and 18 non-patient controls on a range of cognitive tests.
Took twice as long for sz sufferers to notice colours

Question 8

Evidence from biology not fully considered

Answer 8

Is could be that both psychological and biological factors can separately produce the same symptoms

Question 9

Direction of causality

Answer 9

It remains unclear what causes sz