psychological explanations for schizophrenia

Question 1

what are the two psychological explanations for schiz

Answer 1

family dysfunction
cognitive explanations

Question 2

what are the 3 topics in family dysfunction

Answer 2

schizophenogenic mother
doulble-blind theory
expressed emotion

Question 3

what does schizophrenogenic mean

Answer 3

schizophrenia-causing

Question 4

who identified the schizophrenogenic mother

Answer 4

Fromm-Reichmann

Question 5

what did Fromm-reichmann identify

Answer 5

proposed a psychodynamic explanation for schiz based from patients experiences in childhood.
most patients identified a similar type of parent (schizgenicmother)

Question 6

what are the characteristics of a schizophrenogenic mother

Answer 6

cold, rejecting, controlling
creates family climate to-tension & secrecy.

this leads to distrust then to paranoia delusions = schizophrenia

Question 7

who developed the double-blind theory

Answer 7

Gregory Bateson et al 1972

Question 8

what does double-blind emphasis

Answer 8

emphasis role of communication style in family.

Question 9

what does the double-blind involve

Answer 9

child regularly finds themselves trapped where they fear doing wrong thing but receive mixed messages abt what this is. feel unable to seek clarification.

Question 10

what’s the result of the double-blind for the child
(getting it wrong)

Answer 10

when they get it wrong (this is often)
child punished by withdrawal of love.
leaves them understanding the world as confusing, dangerous.
symptoms-disorganised thinking, paranoia, delusions

Question 11

what type of factor is double-blind

Answer 11

risk factor
(not the only one, not main cause)

Question 12

what elements does expressed emotion (EE) contain

Answer 12

-verbal criticism of patient, occationaly accompanied by violence.
-hostility towards patient, including anger & rejection.
-emotional over-involvement in life of patient, including needless self-sacrifice

Question 13

what does high levels of EE result in for patients w Schiz

Answer 13

these high levels of EE are serious source of stress for patient. Is a primarily an explanation for replapse in patients with shiz.

Question 14

how is the diathesis stress model linked to expressed emotion?

Answer 14

however suggested source of stress that trigger onset of schiz in a person who is already vulnerable-due to genetic makeup (diathesis-stress model)

Question 15

cognitive explanations:
what is Frith et al 1992 two kinds of dysfunctional thought processing that underline symptoms ??

Answer 15

1. Metarepresentation
2. Central Control

Question 16

what’s Meta-representation

Answer 16

cognitive ability to reflect on thoughts & behaviour.
allows us insight into own intensions + goals.
allows us to interpretative others actions.

Question 17

what happens when Meta-representation is dysfunctional?

Answer 17

disrupts our ability to recognise our own actions + thoughts as being carried out y ourselves rather then someone else.
explains why hallucinations of voices n delusions like thought insertion (experience of having thoughts projected into mind by others)

Question 18

what is Central Control

Answer 18

cognitive ability to suppress automatic responses while we perform deliberate actions instead.

Question 19

what’s the result of central control not working effectively

Answer 19

disorganised speech n thought disorder result in inability to suppress automatic thoughts, speech is triggered by other thoughts.
example-experience derailment of thoughts n spoken sentences bc each word triggers associations n patients cannot suppress automatic responses to this.

Question 20

what are all the evaluation points for psychological explanations

Answer 20

+support for family dysfunction as a risk factor
^counterpoint
-weak evidence for family based explanations
+strong evidence for dysfunctional information processing
^counterpoint

Question 21

what research support is there for family dysfunction as a risk factor

Answer 21

Read et al 2005
reviewed 46 studies of child abuse + schiz n concluded
69%-adult women diagnosed w schiz had history of physical, sexual abuse or both in childhood.
59%-men

Berry et al 2008
adults with insecure attachment to their primary caregiver r also more likely to have schiz

Question 22

who gave research support for family dysfunction as risk factor

Answer 22

Read et al 2005
Berry et al 2008

Question 23

what’s a counterpoint for the research support into family dysfunction?

Answer 23

most this evidence shares weakness-info from childhood gathered after development of symptoms.
schiz maybe distorted memories creates serious problems for VALIDITY.

Question 24

weak evidence for family-based explanations

(1 lack of evidence)

Answer 24

almost no evidence to support schizogenic mother or double-bind.
both these theories based on clinical obersavtion n early evidence assessing the personality of mothers of patients for ‘crazy-making charcteristics’-modern psychiatrists big problem w this. (Harrington 2012)

Question 25

weak evidence for family based explanations

(2 blaming)

Answer 25

led historically to parent-blaming.
parents all suffered seeing children decent into schiz n are bearing life-long responsibility for their care, underwent further trauma by being blamed for their condition.

Question 26

strong evidence for dysfunctional information processing
Stiriling et al 2006

Answer 26

Stirling
compared 30 patients with diagnosed schiz with 18 non-patient (controls) on range of cognitive tasks.
incl Stroop test Ps have to name ink colours of colour word.
this suppresses the urge to read the word in order to do the task.
Findings- in line w firths theory, patents took 2x as long to name the ink colours vs control group.

Question 27

what’s a problem with evidence for dysfunctional information processing

Answer 27

although lots of evidenced, links between symptoms + faulty processing r clear, this doesn’t tell us anything abt origins of those conditions (schiz).

cognitive theories can explain proximal causes of schiz (i.e. current symptoms) but not distal causes (origins of condition)