Psychological Explanations Of SZ Flashcards
What are the 2 main psychological explanations
Family Dysfunction
Cognitive Explanations
What is the ‘family dysfunction’ theory consisting of (e.g. overview + the 3 main parts to explain)
Psychologists have attempted to link SZ to childhood and adult experiences of living in a dysfunctional family (i.e. a family that is not functioning properly e.g. where there may be abuse, messy divorces, criminal activities, high poverty etc)
The family dysfunction explanation can be explained in three ways:
1.The schizophrenogenic mother
2.Double-bind Theory
3.Expressed Emotion
What’s the ‘schizophrenic mother’
Fromm-Reichmann (1948) proposed a psychodynamic explanation for SZ based on the accounts she heard from her patients about their childhoods. She noted that many of her patients spoke about a particular type of parent which she called the schizophrenogenic mother. The term ‘schizophrenogenic’ means ‘schizophrenia’ causing. Characteristics of this type of mother are: cold, rejecting and controlling as well as creating a family climate full of secrecy and tension. This leads the child to having a lack of trust in relationships that later develop into paranoid delusions (the belief that one is being persecuted by another person) thus ultimately developing SZ. A point to be noted about the schizophrenogenic mother is that in those type of families, the father is often passive and doesn’t really get involved in child upbringing.
What’s double bind theory
Bateson et al. (1972) agreed that family climate is important in the development of SZ but focused more on the actual family communication style. He suggested that children who frequently receive contradictory messages from their parents. In this case, the child finds themselves trapped in situations which they fear doing the wrong thing but receive mixed messages about what this is. (An example of a mixed message could be when a mother tells her child she loves him but is actually showing disgust when she tells him.) As a result the child is unable to comment about the unfairness of the situation or seek clarification. Thus when the child may get it wrong (which they often do), the child is punished by withdrawal of love. The child then feels confused about the world and sees it thus as a dangerous place – this may be reflected in SZ symptoms such as paranoid delusions. However, Bateson did clarify that this family communication style was a risk factor in the development of SZ but not the only cause!
What do we mean by ‘Expressed Emotion’ & it being part of getting SZ
Expresssed Emotion (EE) is the level of emotion, in particular negative emotion, expressed towards a patient by their carers.
EE has several parts:
• Verbal criticism of the patient, occasionally shown with violence
• Hostility towards the patient, including anger and rejection
• Emotional over-involvement in the life of the patient, including needless self-sacrifice
High levels of EE by the carers of the patients creates a serious source of stress – this may be a reason for the SZ patient to relapse – although EE can also be a trigger for the onset of SZ as well especially if the person has a genetic vulnerability to the disorder (diathesis-stress model)
(+) research evidence to support double bind theory (tho it’s also not as strong bc…)
found that schizophrenics reported a higher recall of double-bind statements by their mothers than non-schizophrenics. However, this evidence may not be reliable as patient’s recall may be affected by their SZ in other words because they have suffered from hallucinations and delusions – they may just be assuming that their mothers used more double bind statements and we don’t know if their memory may have been affected by their symptoms.
- evidence for family dysfunction as a contributing factor to developing SZ is not very strong. For example, with regards to Double-bind theory, Liem (1974) measured patterns of parental communication in families with a schizophrenic child and found no difference when compared to normal families. This shows that this theory may not be specifically related to SZ.
(+) review of 46 studies to find […] women and […] men had a history of abuse (figures are %)
reviewed 46 studies of child abuse and SZ and concluded that 69% of adult women in-patients with a diagnosis of SZ had a history of physical abuse, sexual abuse or both in childhood. For men the figure was 59%. This study shows that family dysfunction contributes to an individual developing SZ.
(-) ethically family explanations = blaming who for what etc.
One problem with dysfunctional family explanations for SZ is that they have led historically to parent blaming – parents who have already suffered seeing their son/daughter developing SZ and having to bear life-long responsibility for their care will also suffer further trauma by being blamed for their son/daughter’s condition. This means that family dysfunction explanations may not be entirely ethical and may cause more harm than help to both the sufferer and their parents.
(-) why is the family dysfunctional explanation environmentally reductionist
it is simplifying the cause of SZ to family upbringing and ignoring other factors which could be more important for example, it has been suggested that individuals who possess the PCM1 gene are more likely to become schizophrenic. Therefore we should be cautious when stating that family dysfunction could be a cause of SZ as other factors may be important. It is therefore important to look at a more holistic explanation of SZ rather than just focusing on family upbringing.
What does the cognitive explanation for SZ focus on
Mental processes:
SZ is associated with several types of dysfunctional thought processing and thus provide explanations for SZ as a whole.
What are the two kinds of dysfunctional thought processing that could underlie some symptoms
Meta representation
Central control
What’s meta representation
This is the cognitive ability to reflect on thoughts and behaviour which enables us an insight into our own intentions and goals as well as allowing us to interpret the actions of others.
Thus a dysfunction in metarepresentation would disrupt this ability to recognise our own actions and thoughts as being our own rather than someone else. This could explain auditory hallucinations and delusions (like thought insertions – where you believe that someone is putting thoughts into your head)
What’s central control
the cognitive ability to suppress automatic responses while we perform other actions instead (e.g. a voice in you might say: ‘don’t do this’ – then you choose whether you do it or not)
Speech poverty and thought disorder could result from the inability to ignore your own automatic thoughts as well as what other could be saying to you (in your head) (e.g. so and so would tell me not to do this)
Sufferers with SZ tend to experience derailment (a confusion and breakdown) of their thoughts and what they say because there is too much going on in their thought processes thus they lose control of their own thoughts.
(+) the evidence for thought processing in SZ (comparing the patients on a range of cognitive tasks)
In one study Stirling et al (2006) compared 30 patients with a diagnosis of SZ with 18 non-patient controls on a range of cognitive tasks such as the stroop effect (this is when the colour word is written in a different colour and you have to actually say the colour of the word rather than just reading the word). In his study Stirling found that patients with SZ took twice as long to say the colour of the word than controls – this study shows dysfunctional thought processing in schizophrenics since they were struggling with separating the colour word from the actual colour that it was (e.g. saying the colour blue but the actual colour word written is red) because the Schizophrenics were not able to separate the actual colour from the written word.
(+) of cognitive explanation = it’s application (& the success of it) in CBT to treat SZ
Another strength of cognitive explanations of schizophrenia is the success of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) used alongside drugs to treat schizophrenia. As schizophrenia is a thought disorder, clearly drugs cannot completely treat the disorder thus cognitive behavioural therapy will aim to question and challenge the hallucinations and delusions – as well as using behavioural techniques (such as positive reinforcement). CBT has been proven to be effective thus further supporting the cognitive explanations of SZ.
