psychological explanations for schizophrenia Flashcards
dysfunctional cognitive processes > hallucinations
leads to hallucinations
metarepresentation - cognitive ability to reflect on thoughts and behaviour
dysfunction in metarepresentation would disrupt our ability to recognise our own actions and thoughts as being carried out by ourselves rather than someone else, explaining auditory hallucinations
two types of dysfunctional cognitive processes > delusions
ego-centric bias
lack of reality testing
ego-centric bias
dysfunctional thought process leading to delusions
where the schizophrenic individual perceives themselves as central to events
they interpret irrelevant events (e.g. a flashing light) as relating to themselves
they are unwilling to consider they may be wrong or consider more realistic explanations (impaired eyesight)
lack of reality testing
dysfunctional thought processes leading to delusions
schizophrenics fail to test the reality of their experiences
e.g. if they hear a buzzing sound they are unlikely to pin this down to a medical condition such as tinnitus and instead think they are receiving a special coded message (delusions of grandeur)
dysfunctional thought process > disorganised speech
frith’s theory of central control dysfunction
central control is the ability to supress automatic responses while we perform deliberate actions instead
disorganised speech could result from the inability to suppress speech triggered by other thoughts
e.g. sufferers tend to experience derailment of spoken sentences as each word triggers associations and the patient cannot suppress automatic responses to these
supporting research for dysfunctional processing (cognitive explanations)
a strength of the cognitive explanation of schizophrenia is that there is supporting research evidence
stirling et al 2016
compared 30 schizophrenics with a healthy control of 18 ppts on a range of cognitive tasks; including the stroop test. it was found that patients took over twice as long to name the ink colours compared to the control
findings are in line with frith’s theory of central control dysfunction, strengthening the cognitive explanation of schizophrenia as patients clearly have dysfunctional thought processes (as they cannot suppress automatic responses)
limitation of cognitive explanations
could be considered reductionist
this is because cognitive explanations break down the complex disorder of schizophrenia through the lens of dysfunctional thought processing, ignoring other factors
e.g. cognitive explanations ignore the role of genetic and neural factors, but the biological explanations have received plentiful research evidence. It could be that problems caused by low neurotransmitters then create the cognitive deficits
this suggests that perhaps both biological and cognitive factors together produce symptoms of schizophrenia (diathesis-stress model), undermining credibility of psychological explanations, as they are over simplistic in their explanation of schizophrenia
3 types of dysfunctional characteristics in families
schizophrenogenic mothers
double bind
expressed emotion
schizophrenogenic mothers
schizophrenia causing
frieda fromm-reichmann (1948) proposed a psychodynamic explanation for schizophrenia based on accounts she heard from her patients about their childhoods
noted these mothers are cold, rejecting and controlling and they tend to create a family climate characterised by tension and secrecy
this leads to distrust that later develops into persecutory delusions
double bind
according to this explanation, children who frequently receive contradicting messages from their parents are more likely to develop schizophrenia
e.g. if a mother says “give me a hug” then tells the child “you are too old for a hug”, the child receives conflicting messages about their relationship and one message invalidates the other
these interactions prevent the development of an internally coherent construction of reality, and in the long-term manifests itself as schizophrenia symptoms (e.g. avolition)
expressed emotion
suggests schizophrenia is caused by a negative emotional climate, a high degree of expressed emotion
a family communication style that involves criticism, hostility and over-emotional involvement
although it seems unlikely that high emotion could lead to the onset of schizophrenia, schizophrenics are known to have more relapses if emotions are running high at home
strength of family dysfunction (psychological)
there is supporting research evidence
read et al 2005
reviewed 46 studies and concluded that 69% of schizophrenic females had suffered a history of physical and/or sexual abuse in childhood, 59% in men
suggests that traumatic childhood experiences are associated with increased risk of schizophrenia in adulthood, strengthening family dysfunction as an explanation for schizophrenia
strength of double binds (psychological)
strong supporting research evidence
bateson (1972)
analysed a case study of a recovering schizophrenic who was visited in hospital by his mother. he embraced her warmly with a hug but she rejected him and when he withdrew his arms, she said “don’t you love me anymore”
he blushed and she said “you must not be so easily embarrassed and afraid of your feelings”. after she left, he had a psychotic episode
this suggests that double binds are linked to schizophrenic episodes, like the explanation suggests, increasing internal validity
family-based explanation limit (psychological)
weakness of family dysfunction as an explanation for schizophrenia is that it has harmful ethical implications
this is when research negatively affects the rights of other people outside of the study
e.g. concept of schizophrenogenic mother places blame on schizophrenic’s parents, adding additional trauma to the parents who are likely to bear lifelong responsibility for their child’s care
suggests family dysfunction as an explanation of schizophrenia could prove harmful to society. this could also explain why since the 1980s, the concept of a schizophrenogenic mother has greatly declined
