Psychological explanations for schizophrenia

Question 1

6 point summary AO1

Answer 1

1) Schizophrenogenic mothers (rejecting and controlling)
2) Double-bind theory (conflicting family communication)
3) Expressed emotion (criticism and hostility lead to relapse)
4) Dysfunctional thought processing
5) Metarepresentation leads to hallucinations
6) Central control dysfunction leads to speech poverty

Question 2

Schizophrenogenic mothers (rejecting and controlling) AO1 point

Answer 2

Fromm-Reichmann’s (1948) psychodynamic explanation of patients’ early experiences of schizophrenogenic mothers (mothers who cause schizophrenia). These mothers are cold, rejecting and controlling, and create a family climate of tension and secrecy. This leads to distrust and paranoid delusions and schizophrenia.

Question 3

Double-bind theory (conflicting family communication) AO1 point

Answer 3

Bateson et al (1972) described how a child may be regularly trapped in situations where they fear doing the wrong thing, but receive conflicting messages about what counts as wrong. They cannot express their feelings about the unfairness of the situation. When they get it wrong (often) the child is punished by withdrawal of love - they learn the world is confusing and dangerous, leading to disorganised thinking and delusions.

Question 4

Expressed emotion (criticism and hostility lead to relapse) AO1 point

Answer 4

Expressed emotion (EE) is the level of emotion (mainly negative) expressed including:
- Verbal criticism of the person with schizophrenia
- Hostility towards them
- Emotional over involvement in their life

High levels of EE cause stress in the person, may trigger onset of schizophrenia or relapse.

Question 5

Dysfunctional thought processing AO1 point

Answer 5

Lower levels of information processing in some areas of the brain suggest that cognition is impaired. For example, reduced processing in the ventral striatum is associated with negative symptoms.

Question 6

Metarepresentation leads to hallucinations AO1 point

Answer 6

Metarepresentation is the cognitive ability to reflect on thoughts and behaviour (Frith et al 1992). This dysfunction disrupts our ability to recognise our thoughts as our own - could lead to the sensation of hearing voices (hallucinations) and experience of having thoughts placed in the mind by others (thought insertion, a delusion).

Question 7

Central control dysfunction leads to speech poverty AO1 point

Answer 7

Frith et al (1992) also identified dysfunction of central control as a way to explain speech poverty - central control being the cognitive ability to suppress automatic responses while performing deliberate actions. People with schizophrenia experience derailment of thoughts because each word triggers automatic associations that they cannot suppress.

Question 8

What are the cognitive explanations?

Answer 8

• Dysfunctional thinking
• Metarepresentation dysfunction
• Central control dysfunction

Question 9

What are the family dysfunction explanations?

Answer 9

• The schizophrenogenic mother
• Double bind theory
• Expressed emotion

Question 10

Research support evaluation of family dysfunction

Answer 10

One strength is evidence linking family dysfunction to schizophrenia. A review by Read et al (2005) reported that adults with schizophrenia are disproportionately likely to have insecure attachment (Type C or D). Also, 69% of women and 59% of men with schizophrenia have history of physical and/or sexual abuse. This strongly suggests that family dysfunction does make people more vulnerable to schizophrenia.

Question 11

Explanation lacks support evaluation of family dysfunction

Answer 11

One limitation is the poor evidence base for any of the explanations. There is almost no evidence to support the importance of traditional family based theories e.g. schizophrenogenic mother and double bind. Both theories are based on clinical observation of patients and informal assessment of the personality of the mothers of patients. This means that family explanations have not been able to explain the link between childhood trauma and schizophrenia.

Question 12

Research support evaluation of cognitive explanations

Answer 12

One strength is evidence for dysfunctional thought processing. Stirling et al (2006) compared performance on a range of cognitive tasks (e.g. Stroop task) in people with and without schizophrenia. As predicted by central control theory, people with schizophrenia took over twice as long on average to name the font colours. This supports the view that the cognitive processes of people with schizophrenia are impaired.

Question 13

A proximal explanation evaluation of cognitive explanations

Answer 13

One limitation is only proximal origins of symptoms explained.
Cognitive explanations for schizophrenia are proximal explanations - they explain what is happening now to produce symptoms. Cognitive explanations are weaker as distal explanations (i.e. what causes cognitive problems), possible distal explanations are genetic and family dysfunction. This means that cognitive theories alone only provide partial explanations.

Question 14

Family dysfunction

Answer 14

refers to processes within a family such as poor family communication, cold parenting and high levels of expressed emotion. These may be risk factors for both the development and maintenance of schizophrenia.

Question 15

Cognitive explanations

Answer 15

explanations that focus on mental processes such as thinking, language and attention.

Question 16

Dysfunctional thought processing

Answer 16

information processing that does not represent reality accurately and produces undesirable consequences.