SCHIZOPHRENIA - Psychological Explanations For Schizophrenia Flashcards
What is family dysfunction?
- poor family communication
- cold parenting
- high levels of expressed emotions
= risk factors for development and maintenance of schizophrenia
Who is the schizophrenogenic mother?
- schizophrenia causing mother
Fromm-Reichmann = schziophrenogenic mother is cold, rejecting, controlling. Creates a family climate characterised by tension and secrecy = leads to distrust that later develops into paranoid delusions.
Explain the double- bind theory?
Bateson (1972) = said that communication style = risk factor for developing schizophrenia
The developing child fears doing the wrong thing but receive mixed messages = feeling unable to comment on unfairness of situation or seek clarification .
When child gets something wrong = punished with withdrawal of love
This leaves them w/ understanding = world is dangerous = paranoid delusions
Define expressed emotions?
Level of negative emotion expressed towards a person with schizophrenia by their carers who are often family members .
Give examples of expressed emotion?
- verbal criticism of person
- violence
- hostility
- emotional over involvement in the life of the person
What do you high levels of expressed emotion directed towards individual cause?
- Serious source of stress cause schizophrenia
- primary explanation for relapse
- diathesis-stress model = stress can trigger vulnerable people to schizophrenia due to genetic makeup
What is dysfunctional thought processing?
- information processing that does not represent reality accurately, and produces undesirable consequences
- decreased though processing in ventral stratium is associated with negative symptoms
- decreased processing in cingulate gyri = hallucinations
Explain meta representation.
Frith et al (1992) = cognitive ability to reflect on thoughts and behaviour, allows us to interpret actions of others.
What does dysfunction in meta representation cause?
Disrupts our ability to recognise our actions and thoughts as being carried out by ourselves = explains hallucinations + hearing voices
What does dysfunction in meta representation cause?
Disrupts our ability to recognise our actions and thoughts as being carried out by ourselves = explains hallucinations + hearing voices
What is central control?
Ability to suppress automatic responses while we perform deliberate actions
What is central control?
Ability to suppress automatic responses while we perform deliberate actions
What does central control dysfunction cause?
Speech poverty + thought disorder = inability to suppress automatic thoughts and speech triggered by other thoughts .
Evaluate family dysfunction as an explanation of schizophrenia .
+ research support for family focused explanations
Reed et al (2008) =adults with schizophrenia have insecure attachment (type C/D)
69% of women and 59% men w/ schizophrenia have a history of physical or sexual abuse
Morkved et al (2017) = adults w/schizophrenia reported at least one childhood trauma, mostly abuse . Family dysfunction = makes people more vulnerable to schizophrenia.
- LACK OF SUPPORT =poor evidence base to support traditional family-based theories such as schizophrenogenic mother and double bind.
- research is socially sensitive as it may result to parent blaming.
Evaluate cognitive explanations as an explanation of schizophrenia.
+ RESEARCH SUPPORT:
Stirling et al. (2006) = compared performance on a range of cognitive tasks in 30 patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia with a control group of 18 non-schizophrenic patients.
Findings: patients with schizophrenia took longer = cognitive processes of people with schizophrenia are impaired.
- proximal explanation = currently unclear and not well addressed on how genetic variation or childhood trauma might lead to problems with meta representation or central control.
