Psychological Explanations (+Cognitive) Flashcards
What is the first psychological explanation of Sz?
Family dysfunction - there have been attempts to link Sz to childhood and adult experiences of living in a dysfunctional family
What is the Schizophrenogenic mother and who proposed it?
Fromme-Reichmann - proposed a psychodynamic explanation of Sz based on the account she had heard from patients about their childhood - many spoke of a particular type of parent
Schizophrenogenic means Sz causing
The mother is cold, rejecting and controlling, creating a family environment characterised by tension and secrecy - this leads to distrust and later paranoid delusions and ultimately Sz
What is the double-blind theory and who proposed it?
Bateson - Agreed that family climate is important but emphasised the role of communication style within the family
The child find themselves trapped in situations where they believe they are doing something wrong but receive mixed messages about what this is and feel unable to comment on the unfairness of this situation or seek clarification
According to the double-blind theory what happens when the Child gets it wrong and how does it lead to Sz?
They are punished by a withdrawal of love
This leaves them with the understanding of the world as confusing and dangerous and this is reflected in the symptoms such as disorganised thinking or paranoid delusions
What did Bateson suggest?
That what the double-blind theory states was not the main type of communication in Sz sufferers not the only factor, just a risk factor
What is expressed emotions and what elements does it contain?
EE = the level of emotion (particularly negative emotion) expressed towards a patient by their carers. Includes, verbal criticism of the patient accompanied by violence, hostility towards the patient including anger and rejection, emotional over-involvement in the life of the patient, including needless self-sacrifice
What effects do the high levels of EE expressed by carers towards the patient have?
They are a cause of stress. This is primarily an explanation for relapse, however it has been suggested that it is a source of stress than can trigger the onset of Sz in people who are already vulnerable (due to genetics for example)
What is the cognitive explanation?
There is a focus on mental processes as Sz is associated with abnormal information processing and these can provide explanations for Sz as a whole.
Sz is characterised as disruption of normal thought processes
What is an example of abnormal processing? (cognitive explanation)
Reduced processing in the ventral striatum is associated with negative symptoms whilst reduced processing of information in the temporal and cingulate gyri are associated with hallucinations.
This lower than normal processing suggests tat cognition is likely to be impaired
What two types of dysfunctional thought did Firth et al identify?
Metarepresentation
Central cognition
What is metarepresentation?
The cognitive ability to reflect on thoughts and behaviour. This allows us insight into our own intentions and goals and allows us to interpret the actions of others
Dysfunction would disrupt our ability to recognise 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
What is central cognition?
The cognitive ability to supress automatic responses while we perform deliberate actions instead
Disorganised speech and thought disorder could result from the inability to supress automatic thoughts and speech triggered by other thoughts
Sufferers of Sz experience derailment of thoughts and spoken sentences because each word triggers associations and the patient cannot supress automatic responses to these
What is the support for family dysfunction as a risk factor? (eval)
Evidence to support that childhood experience impacts upon Sz in adulthood
Read et al reviewed 46 studies of child abuse and Sz and concluded that 69% of women in patients with a diagnosis of Sz had a history of physical or sexual abuse or both. For men figure was 59%
Berry also stated that adults with insecure attachments to their primary carer are more likely to be Sz
What are the weaknesses with the studies suggesting family dysfunction? (eval)
Information about childhood was gathered after the development of the symptoms and Sz patients recall could have been distorted - creating various validity issues
A small number of studies may have been carried out prospectively and found that there is evidence linking family dysfunction to Sz but not a huge amount and results have been inconsistent
What is meant by weak evidence for family dysfunction? (eval)
Very little evidence to support schizophrenogenic mother or double blind theory - both are based on clinical observations and early studies looked at ‘crazy mothers’ which modern psychologists reject
