Psychological explanations for schizophrenia Flashcards
What are the two psychological explanation for SZ
1) Family dysfunction
2) Cognitive explanations
Family dysfunction
Abnormal processes within a family such as poor family communication, cold parenting and high levels of expressed emotion
What are the 3 different explanations in family dysfunction
1) Schizophrenogenic mother
2) Double-bind theory
3) Expressed Emotion
The schizophrenogenic mother- Fromm-Reichmann research
- Psychodynamic
- A particular type of parent which she called the schizophrenogenic mother
- cold, rejecting and controlling
- Leads to distrust which later develops into paranoid delusions
Attributes of the schizophrenogenic mother
- Cold
- Rejecting
- Critical
- Controlling
- Creates a family environment of tension
Double-bind theory (Bateson)
- Emphasised the role of communication style within a family
- Unable to comment on unfairness of the situation of seek clarification
- When get it wrong child is punished by withdrawal of love
- Risk factor, didn’t always exist
What is the impact of the double bind theory
- Child is confused, finds the world a frightening dangerous place
- Paranoid delusions
- Disorganised thinking
Expressed Emotion (EE)
Families with high levels of hostile expressed emotion which therefore creates a stressful environment that my cause SZ in vulnerable people
Psychological explanations for schizophrenia (Family dysfunction) evaluation points- Research support
STRENGTH
Many have insecure attachment and more than 50% had a history of abuse
(Read et al)
Psychological explanations for schizophrenia (Family dysfunction) evaluation points- Explanations lack support
LIMITATION
Little evidence for schizophrenogenic mother of double-binds except clinical observation and informal assessments
Cognitive explanations
Explanations that focus on mental processes such as thinking, language and attention
What are the three parts of the cognitive explanations
1) Dysfunctional thinking
2) Metarepresentation dysfunction
3) Central control dysfunction
Dysfunctional thinking
- Lower levels of functioning in some brain areas
- Simon= Reduced thought processing in the ventral striatum is associated with negative symptoms
- Reduced processing of information in temporal and cingulate gyri are associated with hallucinations
Metarepresentation
- Can’t recognise thoughts as their own
- Leads to hallucinations and delusions
- Thought insertion
- Firth
Central control dysfunction
- Can’t suppress automatic responses so what they are saying is triggered by other thoughts
- Leads to speech poverty and derailment of thought
