Psychological Explanations For Schizophrenia Flashcards
What are the two psychological approaches to explaining schizophrenia?
- Family dysfunction (psychodynamic & socio-cultural explanations)
- Cognitive Approach
What is the key points of double bind theory?
- Theory is based on psychodynamic ideas
- Focuses on communication within the family
- Blames the mother for a child’s schizophrenia
- Regression to primary narcissism
- Pre-ego state & Id takes over
- No distinction between reality & fantasy, self & others
- Ego tries to retake control & this conflict may cause hallucinations & delusions
What is the double bind theory?
(Bateson, 1956)
- Schizophrenic patients come from families where parents, espcially the mother, gives contradictory messages about their feelings for a child
- When a child can’t respond coherently to mixed messages, the child is unable to develop a coherent construction of reality, which may manifest itself in positive symptoms of schizophrenia
- This supports the idea from the anti-psychiatry movement that schizophrenia is a reasonable response to an insane world
What is a schizophrenogenic mother?
- Within double bind theory mother is described as this as they are accused of being the one who induces schizophrenia by their negative & overly controlling behaviour
Evaluate the double bind theory of schizophrenia.
- Berger (1965) found that schizophrenics reported a higher recall of double-bind statements by their mothers than non-schizophrenic. Data was gathered through retrospective interviews (this is why it may not be reliable- retrospectiveinterviews lack accuracy)
- Hall & Levin (1980) found no difference between families with & without a schizophrenic member in terms of verbal & non-verbal communications - Data was gathered through real-time recording
What is gender bias?
- Occurs when differences between males & females are either over exaggerated (alpha bias) or ignored (beta bias)
- Leads to incorrect conclusions being drawn about one gender - or it may be because a theory over-emphasises the differences between males & females
Define ‘expressed emotion’
- The critical, hostile, & emotionally over-involed attitude that relatives have toward a family member with a disorder. (McDonagh, 2005)
How does expressed emotion link with schizophrenia?
- Interactions between family members may be an explanatin for schizophrenia
- Types of expressed emotion-family communication been linked to relapses in schizophrenia
What is high expressed emotion?
- High expressed emotion involves more criticism, hostility & emotional over-involvement than low expressed emotion
- The stress from negative criticism & pity becomes a burden on the person with a disorder & the only way to cope is relapse
- Relates to interactions in the whole family, not just the mother
What was the taped interview to do with expressed emotion?
- Taped interview known as the Camberwell Family Interview
- A way to watch verbal & nonverbal answers to make an accurate assessment
- Family members high in expressed emotion cause relapse in psychological disorders such as schizophrenia, alcholism
Evaluate Family dysfunction theories
- Linszen et al (1997) found that high EE families had higher lvels of hostility, crticism and emotional over-involvement; patients returning to these families were more likely to relapse than patients returning to low EE families.
- Kalafi & Roabi (1996) found similar results in Iran
We can conculde research has high population validity as well as high in cultural validity
Give one weakness of family dysfunction theories.
- Socially sensitive research & there are ethical implications as a result.
- For example, a famly with a relative with schizophrenia may feel high levels of guilt if they are blamed for causing a relapse.
- They may also be stigmatised by friends, the community,leading to shame & isolation
- This could lead
