psychological explanations for schizophrenia Flashcards
what is the schizophrenogenic mother
fromm-reichmann- psychodynamic explanation for schizophrenia based on accounts she heard from patients about childhoods, many patients spoke of particular type of parent- schizophrenogenic mother- cold rejecting and controlling and tends to create a family climate characterised by tension and secrecy, leads to distrust that later develops into paranoid delusions and schizophrenia
what is the double blind theory
bateson-family climate important in development of schizophrenia but emphasised role of communication style within a family, developing child regularly finds themselves trapped in situations where they fear doing the wrong thing but receive mixed messages about what this is and feel unable to comment on the unfairness of this situation or seek clarification, when they get it wrong the child punished by withdrawl of love, leaves them with understanding of world as confusing and dangerous and reflected in symptoms like disorganised thinking and paranoid delusions, this was neither the main type of communication in the family nor the only factor in developing schizophrenia just a risk factor
what is expressed emotion
level of emotion expressed towards person with schizophrenia by their careers (often family members)
verbal criticism of the person
hostility towards the person
emotional overinvolvement in the life of the person
high levels of expressed emotion source of stress
primarily explanation for relapse in people with schizophrenia
may be source of stress that can trigger the onset of schizophrenia in person already vulnerable
what is dysfunctional thinking
cognitive explanation- phenomenon one which focuses on role of mental processes
associated with several types of dysfunctional thought processing- can provide explanations for schizophrenia as whole
characterised by disruption to normal thought processing
reduced thought processing in ventral striatum associated with negative symptoms
reduced processing of information in temporal and cingulate gyri associated with hallucinations
lower thn usual level of information processing suggests congition likely to be impaired
what is metarepresentation dysfunction
frith- identified two kinds of dysfunctional thought processes
metarepresentation- cognitive ability to relfect on thoughts and behaviour- allows insight into own intentions and goals and interpret the actions of others
dysfunction in metarepresentation disrupt ability to recognise own actions and thoughts as being carried out by ourselves rather than someone else
explain hallucinations of hearing vices and delusions like though insertion
what is central control dysfunction
frith- identified iddues with cognitive ability to suppress automatic responses while we perform deliberate actions
speech poverty and thought disorder result from inability to suppress automatic thoughts and speech triggered by other thoughts
what is research support (family explanations evaluation)
evidence linking to family dysfunction to schizophrenia
indicators of family dysfunction- insecure attachment and exposure to childhood trauma
read-adults with schizophrenia disproportianatley likely to have insecure attatchment type c or d, 69% women and 59% men have history of physical and sexual abuse
family dysfunction makes people more vulnerable
what is explanations lack support (fmaily expkanations evaluation)
poor evidence base for any explanations
plenty evidence supporting idea childhood family based stress associated with adult schizophrenia- none to support importance of family based theories
both theories based on clinical observation of people with schizophrenia and informal assessment of mothers personalities but not systematic evidence
family explanations have not been able to account for link between childhood trauma and schizophrenia
what is research support (cognitive explanations evaluation)
evidence for dysfunctional thought processing
stirling- compared performance on range cognitive tasks in 30 people with schizophrenia and control group of 30 people without, stroop task- pps name font colours of colour words so have to suppress tendancy to read words aloud, people with schizophrenia took longer to name font colours
cognitive processes of people with schizophrenia are impaired
what is a proximal explanation (cognitive explanations evaluation)
only explain proximal origins of symptoms
explain what is happening now to produce symptoms
distal explanations- focus what initially caused condition (genetic and family dysfunction)
currently unclear and not well addressed is how genetic variation or childhood trauma might lead to problems with metarepresentation or central control
cognitive theoroes on their own only provide partial explanations for schizophrenia
