Psychological Explanations for SZ Flashcards
What structure do you need to follow when answering psychological explanations q’s
Name
Explain
Feeling
Symptom
Give intro for family dysfunction
idea that I devs sz because they have been raised in dysfunctional family env
the family is dysfunctional in the way that they communicate w each other as they have high levels of tension and arguments
results in creating dev and maintenance of sz
Describe Schizophrenogenic mother
- idea that sz caused by patients early experience of sz mother (Frieda Fromm-Reichman)
- sz mother is cold controlling rejecting and emotionally unresponsive and builds family climate characterised by family tension and secrecy
- leads to distrust that later devs into paranoid delusions in sz
- father is often passive
Describe Double Bind Communication
- Bateson argues that sz is due to faulty communication w patterns that exist within families
- occurs when parent communicates a verbal message which is not matched w their non-verbal message so child receives mixed messages
eg father may be verbally loving but emotionally rejecting eg becoming rigid when child shows affection
-conflicting/confusing forms of communication contribute to cause of sz child feels can’t do anything right becomes increasingly anxious leading g them to avoid social contact avolition - symptom and mixed messages results in disorganised thinking/paranoid delusions
Describe Expressed Emotion
- level of emotion in particular - emotion expressed towards a patient by their family members
high levels of expressed emotion such as
> verbal criticism
hostility towards patient
emotional over-involvement in their life
this can cause stress in patient and constant harassment from family can trigger onset sz
the stress is primary expl for relapse in patients w sz (Kavanangh) this because patients w sz is placed back into stressful env
there is resurgence of +/- symptoms
Give RTS for SZ mother
P - Mednick
E - researched 207 children (high risk of dev sz) who were raised in dysfunctional families where mothers were cold rejecting and emotionally unresponsive to Childrens needs
E - found that 10 yrs later 17 children of this high risk group were diagnosed w sz this is 8% compared w 1% of gen pop
L - supporting theory that fam dysfunction leads to sz
What is the D for RTS SZ Mother
P - praised as based on prospective data (sample followed for long periods of time)
E - therefore does not have confounding variable of patients w sz having took back to their childhood and recall info that may be incorrect due to passing of time this increases iv of R into family dysfunction as expl of sz
Give RTS Double Bind Communication
P - Berger
E - when asked ant interactions w parents in childhood found that z could remember more instances of double bind communication from their mother than non sz’s
L - provides clear support for mixed communication in so’s childhood therefore supports family dysfunction as explanations of sz
give a D for RTS double bind communication
R based on retrospective data s patient has to think back to childhood therefore could mean inaccuracies in recall as long period of time has passed
reduces iv of R into family dysfunction
Give a strength of Family Dysfunction
P - PRAC APPS
E - principles of theory that sz caused by fault communications lead to family therapy
E - effective in treating sz by therapist meeting w patient and their family in order to alter rs and communication patterns
> reduces levels of expressed emotion and can help prevent relapse (Leff)
L - important in applied psych helps treat ppl in real world
Give the intro for cognitive explanations
focus on the role of internal metal processes
sz characterised by disruption to normal thought processing. Frith et al identified 2 kinds of dysfunctional thought processing that could trigger some symptoms
Define Metarepresentation
- cognitive ability to reflect on thoughts and bh
this allows us to understand our actions and the actions of others - dysfunction in metarepresentation would disrupt ability to recognise our own actions and thoughts as being carried out by ourselves or others
- this could explain auditory hallucinations + symptom as I may not understand that voice in head is their own voice and not somebody elses = causing distress to I
eg voice telling you your friends hate you rather than yourself
Define Central Control
- cognitive ability to suppress automatic responses whilst performing a deliberate action instead
- dysfunction in cc cud explain speech poverty and thought disorder as I not able to suppress automatic thoughts and speech triggered by other. thoughts/words spoken
- sufferers w sz can experience disrupted spoken sentences known as derailment where I speech is disrupted as the spoken words trigger other associations snd person cannot suppress the action
Give RTS for dysfunctional thought processing
P - Stirling
E - compare 30 patients w sz w 18 non-patient controls on a range of cognitive tasks such as STROOP test
E - ppts accurately name ink color to colour word printed
sz took x2 as long to complete the task as control group as they cud not suppress their automatic response pf saying the word rather than the colour
L- supporting Friths theory of central control dysfunction as explanations of sz
Give an Alt explanation to cognitive explanation
P - Bio explanation/family dysfunction
E - sz due to hyperdopaminergia where high levels of D in central areas of brain associated w auditory hallucinations rather than a dysfunction in thought processing such as lack of meta representation
L - therefore weakening cognitive expl to sz as not only expl hit shud be considered
