Psycological explanations Flashcards
What are the three characteristics of parents of schizophrenics
- high level of interpersonal conflict ls (argumets)
- difficulty communicating with eachother
- being excessively critical and controlling of their children
What are the three factors of family dysfunction?
schizophrenogenic mother
double bind theory
expressed emotion and schizophrenia
Explain the schizophrenogenic mother
this is based in what was heard from patients about their childhood
- they spoke about a particular type of parent the ‘schizophrenogenic mother’ meaning schizophrenia causing
mother is cold rejecting and controlling and tends to create a family climate characterised by tension and secrecy this leads to distrust developing into paranoid delusions and then schizophrenia
Explain the double bind theory
the child finds themselves trapped in a situation where they fear doing the wrong thing but received mixed mgs
they feel unable to comment on the unfairness and seek clarification
when they get it wrong they’re punished by withdrawal of love leaving them both a confusing understanding of the world
this can **lead to disorganised thinking and paranoid delusions **
this is just a RISK FACTOR
Explain expressed emotion and schizophrenia
negative emotion expressed towards a patient by their cares such as:
• verbal criticism often accompanied by violence
• hostility, including anger and rejection
• emotional over involvement including needless self sacrifice
these high levels of EE are a serious source of stress for the patient, and is an explanation for relapse
the source of stress can trigger the onset of schizophrenia in a vulnerable person
What is the congnitive explanation of Schizophrenia
focuses on the role of mental processes and attempts to explain schiz in terms of faulty cognitions
What is Meta representation?
the cognitive ability to reflect on thoughts and behaviours giving us insights to our own intentions and goals also allowing us to interpret the actions of others
- dysfunction would disrupt our ability to recognise our own actions and thoughts as being carried out by ourselves rather than someone else
- this explains hallucinations of voices and delusions such as insertion
What is central control?
the ability to suppress automatic responses while we perform deliberate actions instead
Dysfunction leads to disorganised speech and thought disorder could result from the inability to suppress automatic thoughts and speech triggered by other thoughts
What are strengths of the family dysfunction as an explanation of schizophrenia
- supported by evidence that childhood affected schiz(Read et al)
- evidence to supports is as a risk factor
What is a limitation of family dysfunction as an explanation for schiz
data is retrospective
What are strengths of the cognitive explanation of schizophrenia
strong evidence to support the idea that info is processed differently (Stirling et al)
What is a limitation of the cognitive explanation of schizophrenia
we dont know the direction of causality
