Schizophrenia - 03 Psychological (Family Dysfunction) and Cognitive Explanations (Dysfunctional Thought Processing) Flashcards
What do explanations for schizophrenia based on family dysfunction say?
that schizophrenia is caused by abnormal patterns of communication within the family
What are the 3 types of family dysfunction?
1-schizophrenogenic mother
2-double-bind theory
3-expressed emotion
What does the schizophrenogenic mother explanation say?
Fromm-Reichman (1948)
a schizophrenogenic mother was a mother who was cold, rejecting & controlled and tends to create a family climate characterised by tension & secrecy
What does a schizophrenogenic mother lead to?
distrust that later develops into paranoid delusions and ultimately schizophrenia
What does the double-bind theory say?
Children who frequently receive contradictory messages from their parents are more likely to develop schizophrenia
one message effectively invalidates the other
What does double-bind lead to in the long term
-affective flattening
-delusions
-hallucinations
-incoherent thinking and speech
-paranoia
What does the expressed emotion theory suggest?
EE involves criticism, hostility and emotional over-involvement
What does high levels of EE cause?
high relapse rate (4x more likely)
Why is family dysfunction seen as unethical?
-blames parents (specifically mother)
-socially sensitive
-may cause parents to blame themselves despite it not actually being 100% their fault
Why would the biological explanation criticise the family dysfunction explanation?
-suggest that genes and neural factors cause schizophrenia
-family dysfunction ignores biological predisposition needed for schizophrenia
reductionist
How could you use family dysfunction to help reduce the symptoms of schizophrenia?
-real life application with family therapy
-focuses on reducing tension within the household and providing strategies for dealing with conflict and miscommunication
If not all children in a family with high EE go on to develop schizophrenia, why is this a weakness of family dysfunction as an explanation of schizophrenia?
-not a full explanation it is a risk factor not a cause
-other factors like biological factors may play a part
-a more holistic approach needs to be taken
-the diathesis-stress model suggests that biological predisposition and environmental risk factor must be present
Weakness of family dysfunction (cause and effect)
-significant differences in the way mothers spoke to their schizophrenic daughters compared to normal daughters
-suggests dysfunctional communication may be a result of living with schizophrenia not the cause
-so much be another cause so we look to biological factors
