Psychological explanations for Schizophrenia A01 Flashcards
What does family disfunction mean?
The abnormal processes within a family, such as poor communication, cold parenting and high levels of expressed emotion
Who came up with the theory of the schizophrenogenic mother?
Fromm-Reichmann in 1948
According to him the mother of someone with schizophrenia acts in such a way that it causes the disorder. This is what is meant by ‘schizophrenogenic’ - ‘schizophrenic causing’
In the schizophrenogenic mother theory, how does the mother act towards the child?
Cold, rejecting + controlling creating an environment of stress, tension and secrecy - father is passive
This behaviour from her creates an atmosphere where the child is expected to show emotion and affection towards her but is also punished for doing so. This creates a family atmosphere that is very tense and secretive, with high levels of conflict that is not resolved.
This causes SZ symptoms such as distrust, which leads to paranoid delusions.
What is the double bind theory and who came up with it?
- Developed by Bateson in 1972 who focused on communication between family members
- A child finds themselves in situations where they fear doing the wrong thing, but have received mixed messages about what the thing is.
- They feel unable to comment on the unfairness of this and are unable to clarify what they should do
- When they get it wrong (which is frequent do to the mixed messages) they are punished, such as the removal of love
Bateson said that this wasn’t typical of all families, it is a risk factor in developing schizophrenia. The issue with this communication style if that it can lead to children thinking the world is a dangerous and confusing place.
Symptoms such as disorganised thinking and paranoid delusions could explain this.
What is the Expressed emotion theory?
The theory focuses on how people with SZ might relapse, rather than it actually being the cause of the disorder.
Expressed emotion (EE) refers to the quality of social interaction between an individual with SZ and their carers and/or family. It refers to the high amount of emotion, especially negative, shown towards the sufferer.
What are the three explanations in the expressed emotion theory?
Hostility: being angry with the person with SZ and rejecting them
“you’re a total waste of space”
Emotional over involvement: being too involved in the person’s life, being controlling or showing needless self-sacrifice
“I do so much for you, its so hard for me”
Verbal criticism: insulting or putting down the individual, this could be accompanied by physical aggression
“you don’t know how to do anything, you need to listen more and do as you are told”
