Psychological Explanations of Schizophrenia Flashcards
what relates to family dysfunction?
- schizophrenogenic mother
- double-bind theory
- expressed emotion
what is the schizophrenogenic mother?
- Fromm-Reichmann proper a psychodynamic explanation based on accounts she heard from her parents about their childhoods
what are the characteristics of a schizophrenogenic mother?
- cold
- rejecting
- controlling
- tends to create a family climate characterised by tension and secrecy
what does the characteristics of a schizophrenogenic mother lead to?
- distrust that later develops into paranoid delusions and ultimately schizophrenia
what is the double-bind theory?
Bateson et al
- family climate is important in the development of schizophrenia but emphasised that role of communication style within a family
how are children punished according to the double-bind theory?
- withdrawal of love
what does the double-bind theory say?
- developing child finds themselves trapped in situations where they fear doing the wrong thing, but receive missed messages about this
- they feel unable to comment on the unfairness of this situation or seek clarification
what symptoms does the double bind theory lead to?
- disorganised thinking
- paranoid delusions
what is expressed emotion?
- level of (negative) emotion expressed towards a person with schizophrenia by their carers who are often family members
what are the elements of expressed emotion?
- verbal criticism of the person, accompanied by violence
- hostility towards the person, like anger and rejection
- emotional overinvolvement in the life of the person, e.g needless self sacrifice
what does high levels of expressed emotion lead to?
serious source of stress for them, and this is a source of relapse
- also could be trigger vulnerability due to genetic make up = diathesis stress model
what are the cognitive explanations?
- dysfunctional thinking
- metarepresentation dysfunction
- central control dysfunction
what is dysfunctional thinking?
- reduced thought precessing in the ventral striatum is associated with negative symptoms, whilst reduced processing information in the temporal and cingulate gyrus is associated with hallucinations
what is metarepresentation dysfunction?
- Frith et al
- metarepresentation = cognitive ability to reflect on thoughts and behaviour, allows us insight into our own intentions and goals
- dysfunction –> disrupts our ability to recognise our own actions and thoughts as being carried out by ourselves rather than someone else
what symptoms does metarepresention dysfunction lead to?
- hallucinations
- delusions
what is the central control dysfunction?
- Frith et al
- speech poverty and thought disorder could result from the inability to suppress automatic thoughts and speech triggers by other thoughts
- people with schizophrenia tend to experience derailment of thoughts as each word triggers associations and person cannot suppress the automatic thoughts
