the interactionist approach

Question 1

what is the interactionist approach?

Answer 1

a way to explain the development of behaviour in terms of factors including both biological and psychological ones, and more specifically how they interact.

Question 2

what factor does this approach leave out?

Answer 2

the social aspect

Question 3

how to get 16/16 on an essay on the interactionist approach

Answer 3

•need to know how it explains schizophrenia and how it’s applied to treatment

Question 4

what is the diathesis stress model?

Answer 4

the diathesis refers to vulnerability and stress refers to a negative experience. the model says that both vulnerability and a stress-trigger are necessary in order to develop schizophrenia

Question 5

what are the two diathesis-stress models?

Answer 5

•Meehl’s model
•Modern model

Question 6

what is Meehl’s model?

Answer 6

•the original model- biological predisposition
•diathesis (vulnerability) was entirely generic- the result of a single ‘schizogene’
•led to the idea of a biologically based schizotypic personality
•if a person does not have the schizogene then no amount of stress would lead to schizophrenia
•stress of having a schizophrenogenic mother could result in the development of the disorder

Question 7

what is the modern understanding of diathesis?

Answer 7

•biological predisposition
•many genes appear to increase our genetic vulnerability slightly (Ripke), there is no single ‘schizogene’
•modern views of diathesis include psychological trauma
•Read proposed a neurodevelopmental model in which early trauma alters the developing brain (environment stress -> biological dysfunction)
•for example, child abuse can cause the hypothalmic-pituitary-adrenal system to become overactive, making a person more vulnerable to later stress

Question 8

what is the modern understanding of stress?

Answer 8

•includes anything that risks triggering schizophrenia
•recent research has involved cannabis- it can increase the risk of schizophrenia by up to 7 times (due to interference with the dopamine system)
•most people do not develop schizophrenia after smoking cannabis presumably because they lack the requisite vulnerability factors
•cannabis potency + age + frequency - increased risk

Question 9

treatments according to the interactionist model

Answer 9

•biological - typical/ atypical antipsychotics
•psychological - cbt, family therapies, token economies

Question 10

evaluation points:

Answer 10

+support for vulnerability and triggers
+effectiveness of combination treatments
-too simplistic / reductionist

Question 11

strength: support for vulnerability and triggers

Answer 11

•finnish adoption study, 19,000 kids whose biological mothers had been diagnosed with schizophrenia
•assessed generic vulnerability and a high risk group were compared with a low risk group
•assessed HEE levels in families in which the kids were adopted into
•found that the children most likely
to develop schizophrenia were the ones with a biological predisposition and lived in households with high expressed emotion
•shows that a combination of genetic vulnerability and family stress can lead to greatly increased risk of schizophrenia

Question 12

strength: effectiveness of combination treatments

Answer 12

•Tarrier combined 3 treatments, 315 patients
•drugs alone were 75% effective in reducing symptoms
•drugs + CBT were 87% effective
•drugs and counselling were 85% effective

Question 13

limitation: too simplistic/ reductionist

Answer 13

•based on the bio-psycho-social model yet ignores the social aspects
•for example, living in poverty is a huge stress
•social factors can play a role in the development of schizophrenia
•definitely not just due to one schizogene