Social explanations

Question 1

Outline Tiwari (2010)

Answer 1

He found that certain environmental factors influence schizophrenia- Maternal infection, cannabis use, living in an urban environment, being male, stress, malnutrition. These are correlations, not necessarily causes.

Question 2

What is the social causation theory?

Answer 2

This is the idea that certain social factors make it more likely to get the disorder.These are Social class (the likelihood of getting schizophrenia increases to 4% in lower classes).It argues that belonging to a certain social group means life is stressful and you are more likely to get schizophrenia.

Question 3

What is social drift theory?

Answer 3

This evaluates social causation. It suggests that plenty of people who develop schizophrenia don’t belong to these groups, and you develop it for other reasons (drugs) and this causes you to drift into a lower class.