Schizophrenia - Psychological Explanations Flashcards
What are 2 psychological explanations for SZ
Family dysfunction
Cognitive explanations
What are three points in family dysfunction
SZ mothers
Double-blind theory
Expressed emotion
explain SZ mothers using a study
Fromm-Reichmanns (1948) psychodynamic explanation based on patients early experiences of SZ mothers these mothers are cold, rejecting and controlling and create a family climate of tension and secrecy which leads to distrust and paranoid delusions and SZ
Explain double blind theory using a study
Bateson et al (1972) described how a child may be regularly trapped in situations where they fear doing the wrong thing but receive conflicting messages about what counts as wrong and cannot express their feelings about the unfairness
when they get it wrong they are punished by withdraw of love they learn the world is confusing and dangerous leading to delusions and disorganised thinking
Explain expressed emotion as a point in family dysfunction
Expressed emotion is the level of emotion (mainly -) expressed towards the SZ patient and includes:
- verbal criticism of the patient
- hostility towards them
- emotional over-involvement in their life
High levels of EE cause stress in the patient a primary explanation for relapse in patients with SZ
What are three points in cognitive explanations
dysfunctional thought processing
metarepresentation leads to hallucinations
Dysfunction of central control leads to speech poverty
Explain dysfunctional thought processing as an AO1 point in cognitive explanations
Lower levels of information processing in some areas of the brain suggest cognition is impaired
e.g. reduced processing in the ventral striatum is associated with negative symptoms
Explain metarepresentation leads to hallucinations as an AO1 point in cognitive explanations
metarepresentation = cognitive ability to reflect on thoughts and behaviour
This dysfunction disrupts our ability to recognise our thoughts as our own - could lead to hallucinations or delusions
Explain dysfunction of central control leads to speech poverty as an AO1 point in cognitive explanations using a study
Frith et al (1992) also identified dysfunction of central control as a way to explain speech poverty - central control being the cognitive ability to suppress automatic responses while perform deliberate actions
People with SZ experience derailment of thoughts + spoken sentences because each word triggers automatic associations that they cannot suppress
Give a strength of psychological explanations for SZ
support for different information processing
Explain support for different information processing as a strength of psychological explanations for SZ using a study
stirling et al (2006)
What did stirling et al (2006) do
compared 30 patients with SZ with 18 non-patients (control) on cognitive tasks e.g. in the Stroop Test participants had to name the ink colour of colour words
What did stirling et al (2006) find
Patients took over twice as long to suppress the impulse to read the word and to name the ink colour instead
What does stirling et al (2006) study show and counter argument
This supports Frith’s theory of central control dysfunction
However it is not clear whether these faulty cognitions are merely the proximal cause ( cause of the symptoms) or the underlying distal case (origins of the disorder)
What are 4 limitations of psychological explanations of SZ
evidence for family dysfunction is often retrospective
evidence for family based explanation is weak
biological factors are sometimes overlooked
cognitive expainaton - direction of causality
Explain evidence for family dysfunction is often retrospective using a study and not and what does this mean as a limitation
Read et al (2005)
most evidence Is based about childhood experiences gathered after the diagnosis and the symptoms may have distorted the patients recall of their childhood experiences.
this means it creates a problem with the validity of the evidence
What did Read et al (2005) do and conclude
reviewed 42 studies and concluded that 69% of all adult female inpatients with SZ had a history and or sexual abuse in childhood
Explain evidence for family based explanation is weak as a limitation
Poor childhood experiences may be associated with SZ but little evidence to support the importance of SZ,EE or double blind. These theories are mainly based on clinical observations and open to interpretation
And led to historical blaming of parents already suffering over their child’s symptoms. These issues undermine the appropriateness and credibility of family-based explanation
Explain biological factors are sometimes overlooked as a limitation of the psychological explanation
they ignore the validity of the biological factors however we can view this in terms of the diathesis stress model where diathesis may be psychological or biological
Explain direction of causality as a limitation
it doesn’t explain the underlying origin of the condition such as whether cognitive factors are a cause or result go the neural correlates and abnormal neurotransmitter levels in SZ
