The Interactionist Approach A03 Flashcards
Tienari (2004) studied 19000 Finish children of whom 145 were adoptees with at least one biological parent with Sz, who were adopted into a new family, what did he find?
Children were compared to a control group of adoptees without this genetic risk
The adopted parents were assessed for child rearing style
Rates of Sz were compared across the two groups
They found that a child rearing style characterised by high levels of criticism and conflict and low levels of empathy were implicated in the development of Sz, but only for those in the high genetic risk group
High genetic risk adoptees reared in families with low scores on this child rearing style scale were significantly less likely to have developed Sz than high genetic risk adoptees reared in families with high scores on the child rearing style scale
This supports the interactionist approach as it shows a combination of genetic vulnerability and family stress can lead to greatly increased risk of Sz
Meehl’s ideas of a “schizogene” are over simplified, how do we know this?
No single schizogene
Ripke 108 genes associated with Sz
The link between genetic vulnerability and stress is still not clear
Not everyone will develop Sz, despite having family members with the disorder experiencing the stressor
Why is this an issue?
Suggests there are other factors not accounted for or understanding of diathesis stress model is incomplete as some people seem to be Sz resistant despite both biological and environment factors present
Houston in 2008 looked at the results from a survey on participants with Sz. 543 reported childhood sexual abuse and 643 reported cannabis use before the age of 16. This is a strength because?
It shows that childhood sexual abuse and cannabis use are high correlated with the development of Sz - supporting the diathesis stress model
