Schizophrenia: Psychological explanations for schizophrenia Flashcards
What are the two psychological explanations for schizophrenia?
Family dysfunction.
Cognitive explanations.
What are the two family dysfunction explanations for SZ?
Double blind theory.
Expressed emotion.
Outline the double blind theory.
Bateson: children receiving contradictory messages from parents, teacher or peers develop incoherent constructions of reality.
More likely to develop SZ.
Outline high expressed emotion.
Families who talk more and listen less. Over-hostile or overly-concerned.
More likely to develop SZ
4x higher relapse rates in high EE families.
AO3 Psychological explanations for schizophrenia
+‘Chicken and egg’ dilemma
-Individual differences
(+AO3) Describe the ‘chicken and egg’ dilemma in relation to family dysfunction.
Does SZ cause a dysfunctional family or visa versa?
Individuals with SZ have distressing symptoms and would require a very resilient family not to have higher levels of EE.
Difficult to prove. As with bio: complexity of SZ highlighted.
Does not reduce validity or reliability.
(-AO3) Describe how individual differences applies to family dysfunction.
Not all patients with high EE families relapse.
Not all patents in low EE families avoid relapse.
Different vulnerabilities to high EE. Biological factors may play an important role here.
Diathesis-stress more appropriate.
What do cognitive explanations of SZ suggest about SZ patients?
They have dysfunctional thought processing.
This means they process information differently to those without the disorder.
Explain the cognitive explanation for delusions.
Individual sees themselves as central to events.
Links external events to themselves - incorrect conclusions formed.
Unwilling to see alternate explanations.
Explain the cognitive explanation for hallucinations.
Excessive attention on auditory stimuli. Source misattribution leads to self-generated auditory experiences being perceived as external.
This is a hallucination.
AO3 Psychological explanations for SZ
+Strength of using the cognitive approach
+more credible than biological explanation
(+AO3) What is the main benefit and strength of cognitive explanations?
Derived CBT.
Challenges false beliefs and evaluating content of hallucinations and delusions through debating.
Successful treatment. BUT requires commitment and is expensive.
(+AO3) Why may cognitive explanations be more credible than biological explanations?
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) claim CBT is more effective at reducing symptoms than medication.
Suggests cognitive more applicable. BUT CBT patients likely to be on medication. Suggests combination of both is best. Diathesis-stress again!
