schizophrenia- psychological explanations Flashcards
how do schizophrenogenic mothers cause sz?
schizophrenogenic mothers
-rejecting and controlling, creates climate of tension and secrecy
-leads to distrust and paranoid delusions and sz
what are the two psychological explanations for sz?
-family dysfunction
-cognitive explanations
how does family dysfunction cause sz?
-schizophrenogenic mothers
-double-bind theory
-expressed emotion
who proposed the theory of schizophrenogenic mothers?
-Fromm-Reichmann’s (1948), psychodynamic explanation of patients early experiences of schizophrenogenic mothers
what is double-bind theory?
-child may be regularly trapped in situations where they fear doing the wrong thing, but receive conflicting messages about what counts as wrong. cannot express their feelings of the unfairness of the situation
who proposed the double-bind theory?
Bateson et al. (1972)
how does double-bind theory caused sz?
-when they ‘get it wrong’ (often) the child is punished by withdrawal of love- they learn the world is confusing and dangerous, leading to disorganised thinking and delusions
what is expressed emotion for sz?
level of emotion (mainly negative) expressed
-verbal criticism if person w sz
-hostility towards them
-emotional over-involvement in their life
how does expressed emotion lead to sz?
-high levels of EE cause stress and may trigger onset of sz or relapse
how do cognitive explanations explain the cause sz?
dysfunctional thought processing:
-metarepresentation
-central control
what is dysfunctional thought processing?
lower levels of info processing in some areas of Brian suggest condition is impaired
i.e. reduced processing in verbal striatum is associated w/ negative symptoms
what is metarepresentation?
the cognitive ability to reflect on thoughts and behaviour (Frith et al. 1992)
how does metarepresentation cause sz?
-dysfunction disrupts out ability to recognise our thoughts as our own- could lead to the sensation of hearing voices (hallucinations) and experience of having thoughts placed in the minds by others (thought insertion, a delusion)
what is the role of central control?
cognitive ability to suppress automatic responses while performing deliberate actions
how does central control lead to sz?
Frith et al. (1992) identified dysfunction of cc as an explanation of speech poverty
-people w/ sz experience derailment of thoughts bc each word triggers automatic associations that they cannot suppress
ao3 of role of family dysfunction in sz: evidence linking family dysfunction to sz
-review by Read et al. (2005) reported adults w sz disproportionately likely to have insecure attachment (type C or D)
-also 69% or women and 59% men w sz have a history of physical and/or sexual abuse
-strongly suggests FD does make people more venerable to sz
ao3 of family dysfunction: poor evidence basis for any of the explanation
-almost no evidence to support importance of traditional family-based theories e.g. sz mother, double bind
-both theories based on clinical observation of patients and informal assessment of the personality of the mothers of patients
-means family explanations have been able to explain link between childhood trauma and sz
ao3 of family dysfunction: parent-blaming
-research in this area may be useful e.g. showing insecure-attachment and childhood trauma affect vulnerability to sz
-but research socially sensitive as can lead to parent-blaming. creates additional stress for parents already seeing their child experience sz and taking responsibility for their care
-means it’ll always be very controversial but worth it for the potential benefits
ao3 of dysfunctional thought processing: evidence
-stirling et al. (2006) compared performance on a range of cognitive tasks (e.g. stroop tests) in people w and w/o sz
-as predicted by CC theory, people w sz took over twice as long on average to name colours on font-colours
-supports view that cognitive processes o people w sz are impaired
ao3 of cognitive explanations: only proximal origins of symptoms explained
-cognitive explanations for sz are proximal they explain what is happening now to produce the symptoms
-cognitive explanations are weaker than distal explanations (i.e. what causes cognitive problems), possible distal explanations are genetic and family dysfunction
-means cognitive theories alone only provide partial explanations
ao3 of psychological explanations: psychological or biological?
-cognitive approach provide excellent explanation of symptoms of sz, suggesting its a psychological condition
-but abnormal cognitive is probably partly genetic in origin and the result of abnormal brain development (Toulopoulou et al. 2019)
-means although it has psychological symptoms, sz is probably best seen as a biological condition
