Schizophrenia - Individual Diffferences Explanation: Psychodynamic Approach Flashcards
What are the the 4 components to the psychodynamic explanations for schizophrenia
- fixation
- regression
- Losing touch with reality
- the schizophrenogenic mother
Describe how fixation leads to schizophrenia
- schizophrenia occurs due to fixation in the oral stage (occurring in the first 1-2 months of life)
- During this stage, the libido is satisfied from the satisfaction of the lips and mouth (breastfeeding)
- if an individual receives too much or too little stimulation it can lead to fixation
- therefore all their symptoms as an adult are a direct result from childhood
Describe how regression leads to schizophrenia
- regression is an ego defence mechanism where you can push threats that you can’t cope with into your unconscious mind
- typically, individuals will revert back to a time when you were younger and had less responsibilities
- Therefore SZ will revert back to the oral stage (when you were 1-2 months)
- this might be temporary or for a very long time, which is why SZ may have ‘episodes’ or have schizophrenia for long periods of time (e.g. chronic or enduring schizophrenia)
Describe how losing touch with reality leads to schizophrenia
- During oral stage, the ego is not fully developed and only your id is developed (present from birth)
- the role of the ego is to control id, however if you have regressed back to oral stage you don’t have the superego there and the ego isn’t fully developed
- therefore SZ have an id that is out of control, which may account for positive symptoms like hallucinations or delusions
- because these symptoms represent the activities of the id, as the person have lost touch with reality and can’t distinguish between reality and what is their desires/fantasies
- As such, those with schizophrenia will show the primary feature of what SZ is, which is narcissism
- this is where you’re supposedly selfish because you are guided only by the instincts of the id (a quality shared in both SZ and newborns)
- Adults with well-developed egos have set limits on their fantasy activity and therefore don’t show those schizophrenic symptoms. But if you’re not well adjusted, stress in your environment —> regress to oral stage —> because you have no set limits on where these fantasies end, you show symptoms like hallucinations and delusions.
Describe how the schizophrenogenic mother leads to schizophrenia
- Frieda Fromm-Reichman (neo Freudian) developed the theory that it’s the mother-child relationship whicch crucial to the development of schizophrenia
- The mother of the children that develop schizophrenia act in an overprotective and controlling way but also at the same time very rejecting and distant
- this leads to a child with schizophrenia because the child doesn’t know where they stand
- the mother’s overprotection = stifles the child’s ability to emotionally develop
- the mother’s distancing = deprives child of personal security
- this leaves the individual in a vulnerable situation when faced with stress — leading to them regressing back to oral stage and them exhibiting symptoms
What are the 2 supporting researches for this explanation
- Freida Fromm-Reichman
- Lidz
Describe the supporting research by Frieda Fromm-Reichman
- found that the ‘schizophrenogenic mother’ is to blame
- through stifling the child’s emotional development and creating stress in their future relationships, it means the child is ‘painfully distrustful and resentful of other people’
- this is a direct result of the ‘severe early warp and rejection encountered in important people in his infancy and childhood’
Describe the supporting research by Lidz
- Suggest that schizophrenogenic parenting was found in cases where the child was schizophrenic
- This is a result of spouse that passively accedes to the bizarre concepts of the dominant spouse concerning child rearing
- this leads to a distorted milieu which stifles the child’s emotional development = stress in adulthood = regression = SZ
When evaluating the psychodynamic explanation, what are the 4 evaluative points to make
- Unscientific — Freudian concepts are out of date
- Not useful — no effective treatments
- Poor reliability — inconsistent support for schizophrenogenic mothers
- Holistic — reflects the complexity of the behaviour well
Evaluate the explanation for being non-scientific
P: Many of the Freudian concepts are out of date and unscientific
E: The concepts of the id, ego and superego are unfalsifiable as we aren’t able to locate a physical ‘id’ in someone’s brain in a precise and testable way. We also can’t falsify the concept of regression either
T: Therefore this lowers the validity and reliability of this explanation for schizophrenia, which in-turn lowers the credibility of this field of psychology
C: This low reliability is further proven by Freud himself who says that “it remains for the future to decide whether there is more delusion in my theory than I should like to admit”
Evaluate the explanation for being not useful
P: The explanation is useless due to ineffective treatments. Modern day psychodynamic psychologists use psychoanalysis as treatment, which aims to make the unconscious conscious so that people gain insight. However schizophrenics lack insight, so therefore can’t be treated this way
E: Strupp et al (1977) found that psychoanalysis would be more harmful then beneficial because it requires accessing memories and insights that they are incapable of dealing with and will cause too much distress, which is unethical
T: Therefore this is a problem because it doesn’t improve the quality of life for schizophrenics and damages the reputation of Freudian psychology
C: this idea of ineffective treatment becomes more apparent when compared to other treatments such as antipsychotics or CBT, which lends a more valid explanation of schizophrenia due to their apparent usefulness
Evaluate the explanation for having poor reliability
P: one weakness of the psychodynamic explanation for schizophrenia is that there is very inconsistent support for the view that the schizophrenogenic mother is a contributing factor is causing schizophrenia
E: Kasanin et al found that 33/45 schizophrenic cases reported an overprotective mother, but that means that one third didn’t have one, making it an unconvincing argument
T: therefore this is an issue because if this style of parent-child relationship caused schizophrenia then we should see it 100% of the time in people with schizophrenia and it would have been even better if Kasanin was blind to the hypothesis so we can judge the 33/45 to be without bias. This matters because any explanation for schizophrenia offer strong research evidence before we recommend treatments based on this explanation to reduce schizophrenia
C: However, it’s important consider that the majority of cases in Karin’s research has a schizophrenogenic mother in common and this is unlikely to be a coincidence but is more likely to be highlighting that the role of the mother is highly important in causing schizophrenia in their children
Evaluate the explanation for being holistic
P: one strength of the psychodynamic explanation for Schiozphrenia is that it reflects the complexity of the psychotic disorder of schizophrenia by offering a holistic explanation
E: evidence comes from Freud’s suggestion that people lose touch with reality when stress causes them to regress them back to the oral stage (pre-ego state), so they may start showing symptoms like delusions. They even suggest the mother-child relationship may cause schizophrenia if she is overprotective and controlling.
T: therefore this is a benefit because the explanation is assessing multiple factors in the creation of schizophrenia and how they all work together, which would not be possible by observing individual pieces. This matters because it’s important to know how stress causes schizophrenia so that we can develop treatments to prevent schizophrenia happening as a response to stress so that people have healthier minds
C: however, it is important to consider that taking this broad perspective can make scientific testing difficult, as it is hard to isolate the individual components that cause schizophrenia, like a schizophrenogenic mother, to test if that variable is directly impacting behaviour
Yes?
No
