Social psychological explanations - Sociocultural factors

Question 1

What are sociocultural factors?

Answer 1

• a theory that looks at Sz in a wider society
  
  • people do not exist in a bubble and we are all shaped to a greater or lesser extent by our culture and society

epidemiologists say that Sz is caused by a combination of factors
- being a migrant, being a male, living in an urban environment, low income, being born ‘poor’ l

Question 2

Social isolation

Answer 2

Sz are often socially isolated from others as they may have few friends and are more likely to be alone — suggested that those with Sz find contact to be stressful so they withdraw

• urbanicity and overcrowding can lead to social isolation — this may be implicated in the cause of symptoms or worsening of symptoms as it means the individual does not get feedback about inappropriate thoughts they could have
• this lack of corrective feedback allows the individual to nurture inappropriate ways of thinking and behaving

For people who have a stronger social network these strange beliefs would be challenged by friends who would be able to point out the logical errors within these thoughts but for people who do not have this their thoughts would remain unchallenged and overtime become resistant to change — means Sz symptoms can go unnoticed for a long time — social interaction is crucial for healthy emotional and psychological development

Question 3

Evidence for social isolation

Answer 3

Jones et al (1994)
- longitudinal study of 5,362 people born in a specific week in march
- between ages 16-43 , 30 cases of Sz were diagnosed
- the individuals diagnosed were more likely to show solitary play preferences at ages 4 and 6 and at 13 years old they were more likely to rate themselves as less socially confident

Question 4

Urbanicity

Answer 4

• human population has lived a rural lifestyle, dependent on agriculture and hunting for survival
  
  • the world has experience urban growth in recent decades and is expected that 70% of the world population will be urban b y 2060
  • this development could be the cause of some of the mental illness that we observe

Question 5

Evidence of urbanicity

Answer 5

Higher rates of Sz in urban areas is likely to be due to specific environmental factors

Krabbendam and van Os (2005)
- identified factors like socioeconomic difficulties for those who live in urban areas e.g occupation, education, income, wealth
- there is a greater amount of social stress when living in densely populated areas which suggests that poor social conditions creates stress that may trigger Sz

Fairs and Dunham
- reported a greater incidence of Sz when comparing densely populated inner city areas with less populated outskirts of the city

can show that urbanicity means people are less likely yo get help not just due to stress but due to the fact the symptoms can go unnoticed because of the stress they are under and do not get help
- may also be more expensive to actually get help

Question 6

Life events

Answer 6

• major stress factor associated with a higher risk of Sz episodes is life events e.g deaths, jobloss, breakups could trigger the illness
• not known how stress triggers Sz but high levels of psychological arousal associated with neurotransmitter changes are thought to be involved

Question 7

Evidence

Answer 7

Brown and birley found that 50% of people experience a major life event in the 5 weeks prior to a Sz episode
- 12% of people reported one 9 weeks prior to an episode

Hirsch et al (1996)
- followed 71 Sz patients over a 48 week period
- life events made a significant collective contribution in the 12 months preceding relapse rather than having a more concentrated effect in the period prior to the episode

Question 8

Sample question - Describe social psychological explanation for schizophrenia

Answer 8

Life events
Social isolation
Urbanicity

Basic info AND evidence for each one

Question 9

Evaluation