Schizophrenia - psychological explanations Flashcards
What are psychological explanations for schizophrenia mainly based on
Upbringing and the importance of childhood trauma
What are the 2 main psychological explanations for schizophrenia
Family dysfunctions, cognitive explanation
What falls under the family dysfunction explanation for schizophrenia
Schizophrenogenic mother, double bind hypothesis, high expressed emotion
What falls under the cognitive explanation for schizophrenia
Dysfunction in the central monitoring system, supervisory attention system, and insight/ergocentric bias
What is family dysfunction and what does it emphasise
Emphasise the importance of childhood upbringing, particularly trauma. Show importance of how maladaptive family relationships and poor communication can contribute to SZ development
What contributes to family disfunction
Family Schism - constant arguing
Family Skew - one dysfunctional parent
What is a schizophrenogenic mother in relation to family dysfunction
Mother who is domineering, insensitive, controlling, overprotective, and rejecting. May micromanage children and reject independence, causing stress and psychotic thinking
What researcher is associated with the schizophrenogenic mother
Fromm-Reichmann (1948)
What is the double bind hypothesis in relation to family dysfunction
Contradictory communication, e.g where mother tells child she loves them, but may turn her head away in disgust. Child receives conflicting messages, so cannot develop a coherent construction of reality - paranoia and disorganised thinking
What researcher is associated with the double bind hypothesis
Bateson et al. (1956)
What is high expressed emotion in relation to family dysfunction
High levels of emotion in a family, concern or hostility towards patient
What researcher is associated with high expressed emotion
Linszen et al. (1983)
What did Linszen et al find (EE)
Patients returning to high EE household are 4x more likely to relapse than those with low EE families
What study was conducted by Lidz as a research support evaluation point
Looked at cases of 50 SZ patients. 90% had seriously disturbed families, 60% had one parent with a serious personality disorder, and often skewed marriages (1 dominant)
What is dysfunctional thought processing in relation to cognitive explanations
Role of faulty information / thought processing. Suggests symptoms of SZ are due to certain cognitive deficits. Comes in 3 ways
What are the 3 ways for dysfunctional thought processing to occur in relation to the cognitive explanations
Dysfunction in the central monitoring system, supervisory attention system, and within insight / egocentric bias
What is dysfunction in the central monitoring system in relation to the cognitive explanations
Labels actions and thoughts as ‘mine’. Explains + symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions.
What is dysfunction in the supervisory attention system in relation to the cognitive explanations
Responsible for generating self initiated actions. Associated with - symptoms such as flat effect, speech poverty and avolition
What is dysfunction within insight / egocentric bias in relation to the cognitive explanations
Tend to believe everything relates to them, so jump to false conclusions, e.g muffled voices = peoples criticisms. Leads to delusions of grandeur
