Schizophrenia - Psychological explanations for schizophrenia

Question 1

What does family dysfunction mean?

Answer 1

-Family dysfunction is an explanation for schizophrenia which suggests that it is the interpersonal relationships within the family of someone with schizophrenia that result in the symptoms

Question 2

How can a schizophrenogenic mother contribute to the development of schizophrenia?

Answer 2

• The psychodynamic theory suggests that people with schizophrenia get their paranoid delusions as a result of an influence of a cold, rejecting and controlling mother and a passive father
• The mother creates an atmosphere of stress, tension and secrecy in the family
• This atmosphere triggers the psychotic thinking causing paranoid delusions in the person developing schizophrenia

Question 3

What is psychotic thinking?

Answer 3

-Abnormal thinking and perceptions

Question 4

How does the double-blind theory suggest that family contribute to the development of schizophrenia?

Answer 4

• The double-blind theory suggests that the child gets mixed messages and feels unable to do the correct thing
• For example: The child may be told that they need to be more independent, but they are overprotective and critical when the child attempts to be more independent
• Bateson suggests that this results in disorganised thinking and paranoia

Question 5

How does expressed emotion contribute to the development of schizophrenia?

Answer 5

• The verbal interactions the caregiver has with the person with schizophrenia can contribute to the development of the symptoms of schizophrenia
• Exaggerated involvement from the parents is when they indicate that the sufferer is a burden via self-sacrifice “I do so much for you, its hard for me”
• Criticism and control of the sufferers behaviour can also contribute to the development of the symptoms of schizophrenia with the parents saying phrases like: “You don’t know how to do anything, you need to listen to me more and do as you are told” and displaying controlling behaviours
• Hostility towards the sufferer can also occur being, physical, verbal or emotional, suggesting rejection of the person with schizophrenia “You’re a total waste of space”

Question 6

What three behaviours are part of expressed emotion?

Answer 6

• Exaggerated involvement
• Criticism and control
• Hostility

Question 7

How does Butzlaff and Hooley support the theory that families that have issues with expressed emotion can contribute to the development of symptoms of schizophrenia?

Answer 7

-Butzlaff and Hooley conducted a meta-analysis which showed that relapse into schizophrenia is significantly more likely in families that have issues with expressed emotion

Question 8

How does research conducted by Tienari support the family dysfunction explanation?

Answer 8

• Tienari studied the biological children of schizophrenic mothers who had been adopted
• It was found that 5.8% of those adopted into psychologically healthy families developed schizophrenia, compared to 36.8% of children raised in dysfunctional families
• This suggests that the interpersonal family environment has a significant impact on the development of schizophrenia in genetically vulnerable people

Question 9

What is the cognitive explanation for schizophrenia?

Answer 9

-The assumption that the ability to process thoughts is dysfunctional for a person with schizophrenia

Question 10

What are the three examples of dysfunctional thought processes seen in people displaying symptoms of schizophrenia?

Answer 10

• Faulty attention system
• Lack of central control
• Issues of meta-representation

Question 11

What is a lack of central control?

Answer 11

• Firth also suggests the ability to suppress and override automatic actions and speech to make deliberate actions to achieve goals (Central control) is sometimes faulty in schizophrenic patients
• For example: Seeing a door handle, there may be an automatic urge to open the door. The schizophrenic patient could have difficulty resisting this urge and they would have difficulty explaining the reason, resulting in delusions
• Speech derailment can also be explained by the inability to resist expressing automatic thoughts

Question 12

What is speech derailment?

Answer 12

-Frequent interruptions in thought and jumping from one idea to another unrelated or indirectly related idea

Question 13

What is a faulty attention system?

Answer 13

• Firth suggested the “Attention deficit theory” which stated that schizophrenia is due to a faulty attention system which is unable to filter preconscious thought and gives too much significance to the information which would usually be filtered, therefore the mind becomes overloaded
• This accounts for positive symptoms like hallucinations/delusions

Question 14

What is meta-representation?

Answer 14

• The ability to identify your own thoughts and actions as your own by paying attention to them
• Faults in this system results in delusions of control, the feeling that your own actions are being created by an outside force

Question 15

How do neuroscience studies conducted by Firth support the cognitive explanations for developing schizophrenia?

Answer 15

• Firth conducted a study with 30 schizophrenia patients with various symptoms, who had PET scans. These scans indicated a reduction in blood flow in the frontal cortex in patients with negative symptoms like avolition and the inability to suppress automatic thoughts
• The scans also showed increased activity in an area of the temporal lobe which is responsible for the retrieval of memories with patients who have reality distortion
• This suggests that there are biological differences in people who have schizophrenia’s brain regions associated with the theorised cognitive processes

Question 16

What is avolition?

Answer 16

• Avolition is a lack of motivation or reduced drive to complete goal-directed activities, it is a concerning and common characteristic in people with schizophrenia
• It is one of the negative symptoms of schizophrenia
• Negative symptoms involve those that cause a decrease or loss in mental functioning and can interfere with daily functioning, including maintaining a job, relationship, or social life

Question 17

How did the study conducted by Stirling et al support the theory that a lack of central control can contribute to the development of schizophrenia?

Answer 17

• Stirling et al conducted a study in which 30 patients with schizophrenia and 18 control patients took part in the Stroop test
• This test assessed people’s ability to name the ink colours on words without saying the word. This is difficult as there is a desire to say the words which needs to be controlled via central control
• Stirling found that patients with schizophrenia took twice as long to name the colour as the controls
• This suggests that patients with schizophrenia do have dysfunctional thought processing, in this case with faulty central control

Question 18

How is family therapy used to treat schizophrenia?

Answer 18

-Family therapy reduces expressed emotion in families, this has been demonstrated to be an effective intervention and it supports the family dysfunction argument

Question 19

How does the use of CBT to treat schizophrenia support cognitive explanations for the development of the disorder?

Answer 19

• CBT therapy for psychosis can be an effective treatment

- This indicates that cognitive factors are involved in the disorder

Question 20

What is a weakness of using family dysfunction as an explanation for the development of schizophrenia?

Answer 20

• It is socially sensitive to suggest that schizophrenia is caused by the family, parents are already dealing with the difficulty of supporting their relative
• Theorists may be adding additional stress and anxiety by making the family think that they are responsible

Question 21

What is a weakness of using family dysfunction as an explanation for the development of schizophrenia?

Answer 21

-It is impossible to demonstrate the cause and effect: It could be that schizophrenia development in the child and their associated behaviour is the cause of the family dysfunction

Question 22

What is another weakness of using the psychological and cognitive explanations for schizophrenia?

Answer 22

• There is a significant amount of research evidence that suggests that schizophrenia has a biological cause such as genetics
• Gottesman and Leucht found that fenetics and neurotransmitters contribute to the development of schizophrenia
• Family dysfunction might act as a trigger but it can be argued that the basic cause is biological