SZ: Psychological Explanations

Question 1

Cognitive explanations

Answer 1

Propose abnormalities in cognitive function are a key component of SZ.

Question 2

Dysfunctional though processing

Answer 2

Cognitive habits or beleifs that cause the individual to evaluate information inappropriately.

Question 3

Family dysfunction

Answer 3

The presence of problems within a family that contribute to relapse rates in recoering SZ, including lack of warmth between parents and child, dysfunctional communication patterns and parental overprotection.

Question 4

What did Bateson suggest?

Answer 4

The double bind theory.

Question 5

What is the double bind theory?

Answer 5

Children who frequently recieve contradictory messages from their parents are more likely to develop SZ.

Question 6

How does the double bind theory suggest SZ symptoms can be caused?

Answer 6

• Child receives contradictory messages from parent.
• Ability to respond is incapacitated by contradictions as one message invalidates the other.
• Prevent the development of internally coherent construction of reality.
• Overtime this manifests as SZ symptoms, eg. flattened affect and withdrawal.

Question 7

Apart from the double bind theory, what is another family variable associated with SZ?

Answer 7

Expressed emotion

Question 8

Expressed emotions (EE)

Answer 8

A family communication style in which members of the family of a psychiatric patient talk about the patient in a critical or hostile manner or in a way that indicatees emotional over-involvement or over-concern with the patient or their behaviour.

Question 9

How might EE levels affect SZ patients?

Answer 9

• High EE relatives talk more and listen less.
• High levels of EE are most likely to influence relapse rates.
• Patients returning to high EE families are 4 times more likely to relapse than a patient whose family is low in EE.

Question 10

What does EE research suggest about SZ patients?

Answer 10

SZ patients have a lower tolerance for intense environmental stimuli, particularly intense emotional comments and interactions with family members.

Question 11

What are the cognitive explanations of delusions?

Answer 11

• Critical characteristic is degree to which the individual perceives themself as the central component in events - egocentric bias.
• Manifests in tendency to relate irrelevant events to themselves - so arrive at false conclusions.

Question 12

What are the cognitive explanations of hallucinations for hallucination-prone individuals?

Answer 12

• Hallucinating individuals are hypervigilant and so have a higher expectancy for the occurance of a voice.
• Find it harder to distinguish between imagery and sensory stimulus and so produce an auditory image - eg. the idea ‘what do people think of me’ can manifest as an auditory image ‘he is not a good person’.

​More likely to misattribute the source of self-generated auditory experience to an external source.

Question 13

Why can auditory errors in SZ patients not be corrected by dsconfirming evidence?

Answer 13

SZ patients do not go through the same processes of reality testing (eg. checking external sources) that others do.

Question 14

What are the evaluation points for family dysfunction?

Answer 14

• Family relations - importance.
• Double bind theory.

Question 15

Write a PEEL paragraph discussing the family relationships in relation to family dysfunction and SZ:

Answer 15

P - Importance of family relationships in SZ development can be seen in Tienari’s adoption study.

E - Those adopted children who had SZ biological parents were more likley to become ill than those with non-SZ biological parents.

E - However, this difference only emerged in situations where the adopted family was rated as disturbed.

L - Shows that genetic vulnerability alone was not sufficient for SZ development = diathesis-stress model.

Question 16

Write a PEEL paragraph discussing the double bind theory:

Answer 16

P - Some evidence to support account of how family relationships may lead to SZ.

E - Berger found that SZ reported higher recall of double bind statements by their mothers than non-SZ - not reliable as SZ can affect recall.

E - Liem measured patterns of parental communication in families with a SZ child and found no difference when compared to normal families.

L - Conflicting evidence shows that theory may not be hugely significant, and may have a lack of population validity as cannot apply to all scenarios/people/families.

Question 17

What are the evaluation points of the cognitive explanations of SZ?

Answer 17

• Supporting evidence for the cognitive model of SZ
• Support from the success of cognitive therapies
• An integrated model of SZ

Question 18

Write a PEEL paragraph discussing the supporting evidence for the cognitive model of SZ:

Answer 18

P - Sarin and Wallin found supporting evidence for claim that positive symptoms have origins in faulty cognitions.

E - Eg. delusional patients were found to show various biases in their information processing, like jumping to conclusions and lack of reality testing.

E - Likewise, hallucinatory SZ were found to have impaired self-monitoring and tended to experience own thoughts as voices.

L - Supports internal validity of theory.

Question 19

Write a PEEL paragraph discussing the support from successful cognitive therapies:

Answer 19

P - Cognitive-based therapies for SZ reinforce the claim that symptoms of SZ arise from faulty cognition.

E - CBTp (cognitive behavioural therapy for psychosis) encourages patients to evaluate the content of their delusions and consider ways they might test the validity of faulty beleifs.

E - Effectiveness of approach demonstrated in NICE review - found consistent evidence that, when compared to antipsychotic medication, CBTp was more effecting in reducing symptom severity and improving levels of social functioning.

L - Shows the ecological validity of theory as has practical appilcations in treatment - cost-benefit analysis perhaps needed?

Question 20

Write a PEEL paragraph discussing an integrateed model of SZ:

Answer 20

P - Cognitive explanation is reductionist.

E - Howes and Murray addressed this with an integrated model - suggest vulnerability factors (genes etc) paired with exposure to significant social stressors, sensitises dopamine system and causes it to increase the release of dopamine.

E - Biased cognitive processing results in paranoia and hallucinations which can lead to psychosis - contributes to stress = more dopamine released = more symptoms etc .

L - Diathesis-stress.