Psychological Explanations For Schizophrenia: Family Dysfunction

Question 1

What are the 3 psychological explanations for schizophrenia?

Answer 1

• Double bind theory
• Schizophrenogenic mother
• emotional expression

Question 2

What is the main idea that psychological explanations for schizophrenia Such as double bind theory and schizophrenogenic mother suggest is the main cause for schizophrenia?

Answer 2

• childhood experiences living in a dysfunctional family will affect experiences of a person during adulthood.
• Abnormal patterns of communication may contribute to schizophrenia.

Question 3

What are characteristics of a Schizophrenogenic mother?

Answer 3

• Dominant
• self sacrificing
• Creates conflict
• deceptive
• moralistic about sex
• over protective
• rejecting
• mixed signals

Question 4

Who developed the Schizophrenogenic mother explanation?

Answer 4

Reichmann and it is a psychodynamic explanation

Question 5

Explain the schizophrenogenic mother explanation?

Answer 5

• Schizophrenogenic means ‘schizophrenic-causing’
• Reichmann proposed this psychodynamic explanation
• according to this theory the mother and her characteristics create abnormal patterns of communication and lead to the family climate being very stressful
• This leads to the development of delusions being developed
• Father in such families is often passive

Question 6

Explain the double bind theory?

Answer 6

• Bateson emphasised the importance of communication within the family contributing to the development of schizophrenia
• the child will continuously receive mixed signals from the mother where she displays love for them but when something they dislike occurs they withdraw love from them.
• The child receiving conditional positive regard results in them feeling like they are always doing something wrong or incorrect, they start fearing their parents as they do not want to be rejected and end up doing nothing to attempt to please them as it might be wrong for the parent.
• The confusion between praise and love with withdrawal from love in a repeated cycle leads to false perceptions and paranoid delusions being developed.
• Symptoms developed include delusions and disorganised thinking

Question 7

Explain expressed motion theory for schizophrenia?

Answer 7

-expressed emotion (EE) is the level of emotion (especially negative emotion) expressed towards a patient by their carers (usually family)

• High EE is a family communication style that involves:
  1. Critical comments through both tone and content, occasionally accompanied by violence.
  2. Hostility towards the patient, including anger and rejection.
  3. Emotional over-involvement in the life of patient, including needles self sacrifice.

-This source of high stress could trigger the initial schizophrenic episode in a person who might already be vulnerable to schizophrenia (for example, if they have a genetic predisposition to the disorder).

Question 8

AO3 for family dysfunction

Answer 8

• Doesn’t take into account biological explanations (Gottesman MZ: 54% DZ: 12%)
• Kavanagh: meta analysis on 26 studies. Average relapse rates of recovering schizophrenic patient going back to a family with high EE is 48% while those going back to low EE families relapse rates were 21%. Supports the idea that high EE and family dysfunction can lead to the development of schizophrenia and the risk of relapse occurring more likely.
• Issues with validity: The evidence gathered to support family dysfunction is usually conducted on schizophrenics after they have developed the disorder. Schizophrenic symptoms such as disorganised thinking could lead to recalling childhood experiences to gain information on wether they lived in a dysfunctional family inaccurate. This affects the validity of family dysfunction as an explanation as the information gathered or findings could be false.