Psychological Explanations for schizophrenia

Question 1

what are the 2 psychological explanations

Answer 1

• family dysfunction
• cognitive dysfunction

Question 2

what are the 3 theories of family dysfunction (AO1)

Answer 2

• the schizophrenogenic mother
• double-bind theory
• expressed emotion

Question 3

what is the schizophrenogenic mother theory

Answer 3

• Fromm-Reichmann worked with many patients and from their accounts of childhood developed a psychodynamic theory of the Mother’s behaviour as a causal explanation of the development of Sz.
• Schizophrenogenic mothers are cold and rejecting (linked to avoidant parenting)
• they are controlling, create tension and secrecy in the home which later manifests itself in the paranoid delusions the patient will develop.

Question 4

what is the double-bind theory

Answer 4

• Bateman proposed that communication issues within the family during childhood could be a potential risk factor in the development of Sz.
• A child wants to avoid displeasing parents at all costs (self-protection mechanism) but when it is unclear what the right thing is to do, when this changes or is inconsistent across both parents the child is stuck in a “double bind”.
• The subsequent withdrawal of love they experience when they displease a parent (linked to resistant attachment style) makes the world confusing and dangerous, and manifests itself in symptoms of disorganised thinking later on.

Question 5

what is the expressed emotion theory

Answer 5

• This final type of dysfunction concerns a parent having excessive levels of negative emotion towards their child and being excessively involved in their life.
• They are hyper-critical, incredibly hostile, angry and rejecting.
• This style of parenting is also linked to high levels of relapse in patients, but also to the diathesis stress model- I.e. a trigger in patients whose biology already predisposes them for Sz.

Question 6

what is the +ve AO3 point for the family dysfunction explanation for schizophrenia

Answer 6

• Research support for general dysfunction
• What we do know is that certain childhood experiences predispose you to be more vulnerable to the development of Sz.
• Read (2005) carried out a meta-analysis of 45 studies and found that 69% of female patients and 59% of male patients with Sz had a history of childhood abuse (obviously family dysfunction but linked to the secrecy, tension aspects of theory).

Question 7

what are the -ve AO3 points for the family dysfunction explanation for schizophrenia

Answer 7

• Lack of evidence and ethical implications
• validity

Question 8

expand on the -ve AO3 point, Lack of evidence and ethical implications, for the family dysfunction explanation

Answer 8

• Very little evidence exists which lends any validity to these theories.
• Outdated research involved interviewing mothers/parents to see if they fitted the criteria described in these three theories, an idea which modern psychiatrists utterly reject.
• These theories are now considered unethical and impossible to measure experimentally.

Question 9

expand on the -ve AO3 point, validity, for the family dysfunction explanation

Answer 9

• One major issue with any childhood based research evidence is validity.
• The majority of research asks adults to reflect on/draw memories from their childhood (using “retrospective” data) and we already know how flawed this can be.
• Modern studies are attempting to be prospective instead in that they follow up children with particular childhood experiences in order to attempt to draw links between development of Sz and early family dysfunction.

Question 10

what were the 2 cognitive dysfunctions Frith identified

Answer 10

• Dysfunction in Metarepresentation
• Dysfunction of Central Control

Question 11

what is Dysfunction in Metarepresentation

Answer 11

• Metarepresentation is your ability to reflect on your thoughts and behaviours, and interpret the behaviour of others.
• When you can’t do this you might not recognise that you yourself had a particular thought or action, and attribute it to another.
• This would explain auditory hallucinations and delusions like thought-insertion.

Question 12

what is Dysfunction of Central Control

Answer 12

• Central Control is the ability to suppress automatic responses while carrying out deliberate action.
• Derailment or disorganised speech could arise from our inability to suppress the constant associations that come into our head whilst we are expressing something.
• Normally we can stay on one path of thought in order to make ourselves understood, but dysfunction in central control would result in us being derailed into a new topic every few seconds.

Question 13

what is the +ve AO3 point for cognitive dysfunctions

Answer 13

• Research Support for Cognitive Dysfunction
• Stirling et al (2006) compared 30 Sz patients with controls on a range of tasks including the stroop test.
• Sz patients took over twice as long to name the colours as the controls.
• This is support for the central control theory, in that the patients were unable to suppress the impulse to read the word instead of state the colour.

Question 14

what is the -ve AO3 point for cognitive dysfunctions

Answer 14

• Research evidence does not establish the cause!
• The most major issue with this area of research is that on one hand we have hundred of studies that illustrate that Sz patients do function cognitively differently to controls.
• On the other hand we have no clear evidence as to WHY.
• We know which neural correlates (proximal causes) are causing which symptoms but we have no idea WHY Sz developed in the first place.
• Cognitive explanations do not shed light on the ORIGIN of the disorder (the distal cause)