Psychological Explanations For SZ

Question 1

What did Fromm-Reichmen propose?

Answer 1

A psychodynamic explanation for SZ based on accounts heard from her patients about their childhood.

Question 2

What did Fromm-Reichmen note about many of her patients?

Answer 2

That they spoke of a particular type of parent which she called the schizophrenogenic mother.

Question 3

What are the characteristics of the schizophrenogenic mother?

Answer 3

Cold, rejecting and controlling.

Question 4

What type of family climate does the schizophrenogenic mother create?

Answer 4

A family characterised by tension and secrecy which leads to distrust and later develops into paranoid delusions and ultimately schizophrenia.

Question 5

What did Bateson emphaisise?

Answer 5

The role of communication style within a family.

Question 6

What is Bateson’s double blind theory?

Answer 6

When the developing child regularly finds themselves trapped in situations where they fear doing the wrong thing but receive mixed messages about what the wrong thing is and therefore feel like they can’t comment on the unfairness of the situation or seek any clarification.

Question 7

When the child ‘gets it wrong’ what happens?

Answer 7

The child is punished by withdrawal of love which leaves them with an understanding of the world as confusing and dangerous which is reflected in symptoms of SZ such as disorganised thinking and paranoid delusions.

Question 8

What did Bateson make clear about the double blind theory?

Answer 8

This isn’t the main type of communication in the family of someone with SZ or the only factor in developing SZ but just a risk factor.

Question 9

What is expressed emotion?

Answer 9

The level of emotion expressed towards a person with SZ by their carers.

Question 10

What are the elements of EE?

Answer 10

• Verbal criticism of the person occasionally accompanied by violence.
• Hostility towards the person including anger and rejection.
• Emotional overinvolvement in the life of a person including needless self-sacrifice.

Question 11

What do high levels of EE cause the person with SZ?

Answer 11

Serious source of stress which is primarily an explanation for why people relapse however it’s also been suggested that it may trigger the onset of SZ in a person who is already vulnerable.

Question 12

Family dysfunction evaluation:
Research support

Answer 12

• Evidence which links family dysfunction and SZ.
• Indicator of family dysfunction = exposure to childhood trauma.
• Read et al showed that 69% of women and 59% of men with SZ had a history of abuse.
• Morkved et al also stated that most adults with SZ reported at least one childhood trauma.
• Suggests family dysfunction makes people more vulnerable to SZ.

Question 13

Family dysfunction evaluation:
Explanations lack support.

Answer 13

• There is almost no supprt for the importance of traditional family-based theories such as the schizophrenogenic mother or the double blind.
• These theories are based on clinical observation and informal assessments of mothers personalities not systematic evidence.
• This means family explanations haven’t been able to account for the link between childhood trauma and SZ.

Question 14

What is SZ characterised by?

Answer 14

Disruption to normal thought processing which is visible in many symptoms.

Question 15

What does a lower than usual level of information processing suggest?

Answer 15

Cognition is likely to be impaired.

Question 16

What did Frith et al identify?

Answer 16

Two kinds of dysfunctional thought processes:
1. Metarepresentation.
2. Central control dysfunction

Question 17

What is metarepresentation?

Answer 17

The ability to reflect on thoughts and behaviour which gives us insight into our intentions and goals and allows us to interpret the actions of others.

Question 18

What would dysfunction in metarepresentation cause?

Answer 18

Make it hard to recognise our own actions and thoughts as ours rather than someone elses which would explain hallucinations of hearing voices and delsuions.

Question 19

What could speech poverty and thought disorder result from?

Answer 19

The inability to suppress automatic thoughts and speech triggered by other thoughts.

Question 20

Cognitive explanations evaluation:
Research support

Answer 20

• Stirling et al compared performance on a range of cognitive tasks with 30 people with SZ and a control group of 30 people without SZ.
• Tasks included the stroop task.
• As predicted by Frith et als control theory people with SZ took over twice as long to name the font colours compared to the control group.
• This means cognitive processes of people with SZ are impaired.

Question 21

Cognitive explanations evaluation:

cognitive explanations only explain proximal origins of symptoms.

Answer 21

• Cognitive explanations are proximal because they explain what is happening now to produce symptoms whereas a distal explanation would focus on what initially caused the problem.
• Possible distal explanations would be genetic and family dysfunction explanations.
• This means that cognitive theories on their own only provide partial explanations for SZ.