Psychological explanations of schizophrenia Flashcards
Family dysfunction
-Family dysfunction as an explanation for schizophrenia suggests that schizophrenia symptoms are the result of interpersonal relationships within the family
Schizophrogenic mother
-The schizophrogenic mother is a psychodynamic theory
-This theory suggests that people with schizophrenia’s paranoid delusions are as a result of a cold, rejecting and controlling mother with a passive father
-She creates and atmosphere of stress, tension and secrecy within the family
-This atmosphere triggers psychotic thinking
Double bind theory
-Double bind theory suggests that children receive mixed messages and feel unable to do anything correctly
-For example, being told to be more independent and then being overprotected and criticised when they attempt to be independent
-Bateson (1972) suggested that this causes disorganised thinking and paranoia
Expressed emotion
Expressed emotion is the attitude that caregivers have towards the sufferers of schizophrenia, measured by verbal interacitons between the caregiver and sufferer
Examples of expressed emotion
-Exaggerating involvement: “I do so much for you, it’s really hard for me”- indicating that the sufferer is a burden
-Control and criticism of sufferer “you don’t know anything, just listen to what I tell you”
-Hostility towards sufferer: “you’re such a waste of space” - Physical, verbal or emotional abuse suggesting rejection
Research evaluation for expression emotion (positive evaluation Butzlaff and Hooley (1998))
Butzlaff and Hooley (1998) conducted a meta analysis on 27 studies looking into relapse of schizophrenia
-They found that relapse was significantly more likely if the family had issues with expressed emotion
Research evaluation - adoption studies schizophrenic mothers -positive for family dysfunction
-Researchers studied the biological children of schizophrenic mothers that had been adopted
-They found that 5.8% of those who had been adopted into psychologically healthy families developed schizophrenia, compared to 36.8% of those who were adopted into dysfunctional families
-This suggests that interpersonal family relationships have a significant impact on the development of schizophrenia for those who are genetically vulnerable to the disorder
Cognitive explanation
-The cognitive explanation assumes that people with schizophrenia’s ability to process thoughts is dysfunctional
Attention deficit theory
-Attention deficit theory suggests that schizophrenia is due to faulty attention systems unable to filter preconscious thoughts and giving too much significance to information that is normally filtered, therefore overloading the brain.
-This accounts for positive symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions
Central Control issues
-Psychologists also suggest that the ability to resist and suppress automatic actions and speech (central control) is sometimes found in people with schizophrenia
-For example, seeing a door handle and getting an automatic urge to open the door
-Difficulty in resisting the automatic urge to do something and then having difficulty explaining the reason may explain delusions
-Similarly, speech derailment may be due to the inability to resist expressing automatic thoughts
Meta analysis issues
-Meta analysis is the ability to identify your own thoughts and actions
-A fault in this system can lead to delusions of control, feeling as if your behaviours are controlled by outside forces
Research evaluation point (Stirling 2006 stroop test)
-Stirling (2006) conducted a stroop test ( a test involving naming ink colours of words without naming the words) on patients with schizophrenia
-Th researchers found that schizophrenia patients took twice as long as the control to identify the colour
-This suggests that people with schizophrenia do have dysfunctional thought processing, in this case a faulty central control
Positive evaluation point of Cognitive explanation (CBT)
-CBT is seen to be an effective treatment of schizophrenia
-This indicates that cognitive factors are involved in this disorder
Negative evaluation point (biological research evidence)
-There is a significant amount of research evidence in support of biological causes of schizophrenia such as genetics (Gottesman) and neurotransmitters (Leucht)
-Family dysfunction may act as a trigger but it is argue that the basic cause is biological
