Psychological Explanations for Schizophrenia

Question 1

Family Dysfunction

Answer 1

SZ symptoms are due to the interpersonal relationships with the family which aid the development and maintainence of SZ

Question 2

Schizophrenogenic mother (3)

PDA

Answer 2

Psychodynamic theory

Delusions result from the influence of a cold, rejecting and controlling mother and a passive father

Atmosphere of stress and secrecy triggers psychotic thinking

Question 3

Double Bind Theory

Answer 3

Suggests the child gets mixed messages and feels unable to do the correct thing

Leads to disorganised thinking and paranoia

Question 4

Expressed Emotion

Answer 4

The level of emotion expressed towards a patient by their carers who are often family members

Exaggerated involvement, indicating the sufferer is a burden via self sacrifice

Question 5

Cognitive Explanation of SZ

Answer 5

Emphasises the role of dysfunctional thought processes

Question 6

Frith’s Attention deficit theory

Answer 6

A faulty attention system cannot filter preconscious thought and gives too much significance to the information that would usually be filtered, overloading the mind

This accounts for positive symptoms

Question 7

Delusions of control

Answer 7

A fault in meta-representation

A patients thoughts, emotions and movement are under control of another agent

Question 8

Positive Evaluations of the Psychological Explanations of SZ

Answer 8

Tienari (2004)

Found that only 6% of biological children of SZ mothers adopted into psychologically healthy families developed SZ

Compared to 37% of children adopted into dysfunctional families

Question 9

Negative Evaluations of the Psychological Explanations of SZ

Answer 9

Socially sensitive to suggest that family causes SZ, as this is likely to cause additional stress and anxiety