Schizophrenia - Social Psychology Explanation: Sociocultural Factors Flashcards
What are the 3 components of the sociocultural factors explanation of schizophrenia
- urbanicity
- social isolation
- ethnicity and discrimination
Describe ‘urbanicity’
- expected that 70% of world population will be urban by 2050
- Krabbendam and Van Os (2005): features of urban life that could be responsible for the increased risk of SZ include:
1) Socio-economic adversity
- increased socioeconomic adversity and/or poverty in urban areas could contribute to a stressful home life for families
- leads to less than optimal family relationships and could increase the likelihood of high levels of EE
2) Exposure to toxins
- toxins such as lead, have been researched
- exposure to lead during fetal development has been shown to significantly influence the likelihood of the development of schizophrenia by Modabbernia et al (2016)
3) Drug abuse
- urban areas have higher levels of drug/substance abuse
- research suggests a strong link between cannabis use and schizophrenia. Zammit et al (2002) found that cannabis use doubled the risk of SZ in 40,000 Swedish males
4) Overcrowding
- people in cities may be more prone to illness due to cramped living conditions and poor sanitation
- when mothers catch certain illnesses in pregnancy it may cause structural abnormalities in the brain development of their baby, leading to schizophrenia
5) Pollution
- increased levels of environmental pollution could hamper the brain development in children and adolescents
- it could even affect the development of babies before birth in their mother’s womb
ALL OF THESE CAUSE STRESS!!!!
Describe ‘Social isolation’
- Faris (1934) found that individuals with SZ find contact with other individuals stressful so they withdraw. So urbanicity leads to social isolation
- the self-imposed isolation cuts them off from feedback about what behaviours or thoughts are inappropriate, and in the absence of corrective feedback they behave strangely
- Jones et al (1994) found that individuals diagnosed with SZ were more likely to show solitary play preferences aged 4 and 6. And at 14 years were more likely to rate themselves as less socially confident.
- A lack of positive social interaction at an early age may leave children more prone stress and social anxiety.
Describe ‘Ethnicity and discrimination’
- Since 1970s there’s a higher than expected number of Afro-Caribbean individuals diagnosed with SZ
- Ineichmen (1984) found that they were more likely to be compulsorily admitted to psychiatric hospitals
- Research by Mahy et al says it couldn’t be done to with genes as they found no increased risk of SZ in the Caribbean
- Therefore it is stress induced through migrating to a different culture that leads to increased likelihood of SZ
- However, increased diagnosis was also present in the children of the Afro-Caribbean migrants in the UK
- Harrison et al (1998) looked at the children and said that there’s higher rates of SZ in those Afro-Caribbean children in the parents have migrated to the UK.
- If the children are not involved in migration, but still have this high incidence of SZ, maybe it’s the DISCRIMINATION IN SOCIETY AND PSYCHIATRY that is the reason why they have the higher level of diagnosis of SZ in the UK.
What is the supporting research for ‘Ethnicity and discrimination’
- Koro
- Lewis (1990)
Describe how Koro supports the ‘ethnicity and discrimination’
- The tools used for diagnosis (DSM or ICD) is culturally biased as they were developed in USA and Europe, and don’t include African culture
- This leads to it ignoring genuine mental illnesses which don’t occur in western societies
- E,g, Koro which is a disorder that involves the extreme anxiety that the penis or the nipples will recede into the body, and possibly cause death
- found only in SE Asian soceities
Describe how Lewis (1990) supports ‘ethnicity and discrimination’
- there’s bias in psychiatry
- Lewis gave 130 psychiatrists an individual written case history. Then asked them to make a judgement in treatment + predict whether criminal proceedings should be investigated
- One condition were told the patient was white, the other condition were told the patient was Afro-Caribbean
- found that patients described as black = psychiatrist more likely to recommend drug treatment and patient was seen as more violent and criminal
- suggesting that mental health professionals can be biased in their judgement by social stereotypes
When evaluating this explanation, what do you talk about
- low reliability: weakness
- Poor application: weakness
- reductionist: strength
- Determinsitic: Strength
Evaluate the explanation for having low reliability
P:One weakness of the dysfunctional family explanation is its low reliability, as schizophrenia rates are consistent across cultures, despite differences in urbanisation and sociocultural factors
E: Sartorius et al. (1986) found that the prevalence of schizophrenia was relatively uniform across diverse cultural settings. If schizophrenia were strongly linked to factors like urbanicity, we would expect to see higher rates in Western, individualistic societies, but this is not the case.
T: This challenges the reliability of the explanation, as the global distribution of schizophrenia does not align with the prediction that urban environments contributors to the disorder
C: However, sociocultural factors like urbanicity could still influence the expression, severity, or onset of the disorder. Therefore Sartorius et al. (1986) may not account for nuanced differences in diagnostic practices or reporting across cultures.
Evaluate the explanation for having poor applicability
P: A weakness to the sociocultural explanation is the poor application to treatments, such as befriending groups. Befreinding groups are done in a controlled setting and is used to combat social isolation in SZs as a from of treatment. However, how do we know who will be SZ and treat them if it only starts developing at 4-6 years old?
E: A study by Dixon et al. (2001) highlights that befriending groups, designed to combat social isolation in schizophrenia, often fail to effectively address the disorder since it typically begins developing in early childhood, long before intervention can occur.
T: This limitation suggests that because the explanation is unable to provide timely and preventative treatment it therefore decreases the credibility and reliability of the explanation (due to its ineffectiveness)
C: However, although it’s application won’t be able to prevent the onset of SZ, it does provide significant value in helping to manage the disorder and improve their quality of life by mitigating the effects of social isolation and promoting positive social connections
Evaluate the explanation for being reductionist
P: One strength of the explanation is that it takes a reductionist approach, allowing us to understand complex behaviours (like schizophrenia) in a simple way that we can then isolate components from and test them to verify causal relationships
E: This shows true for ethnicity and discrimination in Afro-Caribbean populations leading to higher incidences of SZ because of research by Lewis (1990) which found that if patients were described as black, it lead to higher admissions to psychiatric hospitals based on the skin colour of the patient, showing discrimination as a main factor (excluding the possibility of genetic factors)
T: Therefore this is a strength as we are able to establish causal relationships by researching these certain aspects in high amounts of depth and detail, that just wouldn’t be applicable if we tried to measure a multitude of factors all at once. Therefore increasing the validity of the explanation
C: However, research by Howes and Kapur (2009) suggests that environmental stressors, like discrimination, can trigger dopamine dysregulation in vulnerable individuals. Thus, focusing solely on sociocultural aspects risks ignoring how these factors interplay with neurobiological processes, ultimately leading to an incomplete understanding of the disorder.
Evaluate the explanation for being deterministic
P: One strength of this explanation is its deterministic nature, which facilitates the establishment of causal relationships and the prediction of behaviors associated with schizophrenia.
E: For instance, research by Modabbernia et al. (2016) highlights the impact of urbanicity and environmental toxins, demonstrating that exposure to lead during fetal development significantly increases the risk of developing schizophrenia.
T: Therefore, by understanding and predicting the effects of urban environmental factors, we can inform individuals about preventive measures to mitigate exposure to harmful toxins during pregnancy, ultimately leading to a reduction in the incidence of schizophrenia.
C: However, Modabbernia et al. (2016) identifies lead exposure as a risk factor and not a direct cause as they do not isolate it from other environmental influences and genetic predispositions that could also contribute to the disorder. Therefore we cannot confidently determine causal relationships to do with urbanicity as it is only a risk factor and not a direct cause of schizophrenia.
