Schizophrenia- Psychological Explanations For SZ

Question 1

Family dysfunction -

Answer 1

Abnormal processes within a family such as poor family communication, cold parenting and high levels of expressed emotion. These may be risk factors for both the development and maintenance of schizophrenia.

Question 2

Cognitive explanations -

Answer 2

Explanations that focus on mental processes such as thinking, language and attention.

Question 3

Dysfunctional thought processing -

Answer 3

A general term meaning information processing that is not functioning normally and produces undesirable consequences.

Question 4

Psychological Explanations for Schizophrenia

Answer 4

There are a range of psychological explanations for schizophrenia, focusing on both the family environment and abnormal cognitive processes.

Question 5

What do psychological explanations for schizophrenia focus on?

Answer 5

They focus on the family environment’s role in vulnerability to schizophrenia and abnormal cognition in sufferers.

Question 6

Family Dysfunction in Schizophrenia

Answer 6

Family dysfunction links schizophrenia to childhood and adult experiences of living in a dysfunctional family environment.

Question 7

How does family dysfunction relate to schizophrenia?

Answer 7

It suggests that experiences in a dysfunctional family increase vulnerability to schizophrenia.

Question 8

Schizophrenogenic Mother

Answer 8

Frieda Fromm-Reichmann (1948) proposed that a “schizophrenogenic mother” is cold, rejecting, and controlling, creating a family climate of tension and secrecy. This climate leads to distrust, which later develops into paranoid delusions and ultimately schizophrenia.

Question 9

What is the schizophrenogenic mother, according to Fromm-Reichmann?

Answer 9

A mother who is cold, rejecting, and controlling, fostering an atmosphere of distrust that may lead to schizophrenia.

Question 10

Double-Bind Theory

Answer 10

Gregory Bateson et al. (1972) proposed that family communication style, particularly “double-bind” situations, contributes to schizophrenia. In these situations, a child receives mixed messages and cannot comment on the unfairness, leading to confusion and anxiety. This experience is linked to disorganized thinking and paranoid delusions.

Question 11

What is double-bind theory?

Answer 11

The idea that mixed messages in family communication create confusion and fear, potentially leading to disorganized thinking and paranoia.

Question 12

Expressed Emotion (EE) and Schizophrenia

Answer 12

Expressed Emotion (EE) is the level of negative emotion directed toward a patient by their carers. It includes elements like verbal criticism, hostility, and over-involvement. High EE levels increase stress for the patient, making relapse more likely, and may trigger schizophrenia onset in those genetically predisposed.

Question 13

What is Expressed Emotion (EE), and how does it affect schizophrenia?

Answer 13

EE is the level of negative emotion from carers, which can increase relapse risk and potentially trigger schizophrenia in vulnerable individuals.

Question 14

Cognitive Explanations for Schizophrenia

Answer 14

Cognitive explanations focus on the role of mental processes and abnormal information processing in schizophrenia.

Question 15

What do cognitive explanations for schizophrenia focus on?

Answer 15

They focus on abnormal thought processing as a basis for understanding schizophrenia symptoms.

Question 16

Disrupted Thought Processing in Schizophrenia

Answer 16

Schizophrenia is characterized by disruptions in normal thought processing. Reduced activity in the ventral striatum correlates with negative symptoms, while reduced processing in the temporal and cingulate gyri is associated with hallucinations.

Question 17

How does disrupted thought processing manifest in schizophrenia?

Answer 17

It includes lower-than-normal processing in specific brain regions, leading to symptoms like hallucinations and negative symptoms.

Question 18

Frith et al. (1992) on Dysfunctional Thought Processing

Answer 18

Christopher Frith et al. (1992) identified two types of dysfunctional thought processing in schizophrenia: metarepresentation and central control.

Question 19

What two types of dysfunctional thought processing did Frith et al. identify in schizophrenia?

Answer 19

Metarepresentation and central control.

Question 20

Metarepresentation Dysfunction in Schizophrenia

Answer 20

Metarepresentation is the cognitive ability to reflect on one’s own thoughts and behavior and to interpret others’ actions. Dysfunction here could explain hallucinations and delusions like thought insertion.

Question 21

What role does metarepresentation play in schizophrenia?

Answer 21

Dysfunction in metarepresentation may cause individuals to misattribute thoughts and actions, leading to symptoms like hallucinations.

Question 22

Central Control Dysfunction in Schizophrenia

Answer 22

Central control is the cognitive ability to suppress automatic thoughts. Dysfunction here could lead to disorganized speech, as the patient struggles to suppress automatic associations that derail thoughts and spoken sentences.

Question 23

What happens when central control is dysfunctional in schizophrenia?

Answer 23

Patients experience disorganized speech, as they are unable to suppress automatic responses and associations.

Question 24

Evaluation: Support for Family Dysfunction as a Risk Factor

Read et al. (2005)

Answer 24

Study Name: Read et al. (2005)

Findings: Reviewed 46 studies and found that 69% of adult women and 59% of men with a diagnosis of schizophrenia had a history of physical or sexual abuse in childhood.

Conclusion: This study suggests a link between childhood abuse and later development of schizophrenia, supporting family dysfunction as a risk factor.

Question 25

Evaluation: Support for Family Dysfunction as a Risk Factor

Berry et al. (2008)

Answer 25

Study Name: Berry et al. (2008)

Findings: Found that adults with insecure attachments to their primary caregivers are more likely to develop schizophrenia.

Conclusion: This adds to the body of evidence that family dysfunction, specifically insecure attachment, may increase vulnerability to schizophrenia.

Question 26

Limitations of Evidence for Family Dysfunction

Answer 26

Issue: Most evidence is based on retrospective accounts, meaning patients recall childhood experiences after developing schizophrenia.
Problem: Schizophrenia may distort patients’ memories of their childhood, creating a validity issue.

Alternative Evidence: Only a small number of prospective studies (e.g., Tienari et al.) exist that follow children over time to observe if childhood experiences predict schizophrenia, and results from these studies are inconsistent.

Question 27

Evaluation: Weak Evidence for Family-Based Explanations

Answer 27

Critique: There is limited evidence to support the specific theories of the schizophrenogenic mother or double-bind communication.

Reason: These theories are largely based on clinical observation and the assessment of patient mothers for ‘crazy-making characteristics,’ a subjective and outdated method (Harrington 2012).

Question 28

Parent-Blaming Issue:

Answer 28

Problem: Family-based theories have historically led to blaming parents, adding trauma for parents already dealing with their child’s condition.

Historical Shift: The move from hospital to community care in the 1980s, which often placed responsibility on parents, may have led to a decline in popularity of the schizophrenogenic mother and double-bind theories, as parents rejected these ideas.

Question 29

Evaluation: Strong Evidence for Dysfunctional Information Processing

Stirling et al. (2006)

Answer 29

Study Name: Stirling et al. (2006)

Method: Compared 30 schizophrenia patients to 18 non-patient controls on cognitive tasks, including the Stroop Test (which measures central control by having participants name the ink color of color words while suppressing the impulse to read the words).

Findings: Patients with schizophrenia took more than twice as long as controls to name the ink colors, supporting Frith’s theory of central control dysfunction.

Question 30

Criticism of Cognitive Explanations:

Answer 30

Issue: Cognitive explanations only clarify the proximal causes of schizophrenia (i.e., they explain current symptoms) and not the distal causes (i.e., the origins of the condition).

Conclusion: Although cognitive theories reveal links between symptoms and faulty cognition, they don’t explain the root cause of schizophrenia.

Question 31

Evidence for biological factors is not adequately considered

Answer 31

In their pure forms at least, psychological explanations (particularly family dysfunction) for schizophrenia can be hard to reconcile with the biological explanations we looked at on the previous spread. It could be that both biological and psychological factors can separately produce the same symptoms, which raises the question of whether both outcomes are really schizophrenia.

Alternatively, we can view this in terms of the diathesis-stress model where the diathesis may be biological (as discussed on the previous spread) or psychological (as discussed on this spread).

Question 32

Direction of causality

Answer 32

We have a mass of information concerning abnormal cognitions as well as a mass of information about abnormal biology in schizophrenia. However, it remains unclear what causes what, including whether cognitive tactors are a cause or are a result of the neural correlates and abnormal neurotransmitter levels seen in schizophrenia.