Treatment According To The Interactionist Approach A03 Flashcards
Tarrier (2004) 315 patients were randomly allocated to the following groups:
1. Medication and CBT group
2. Medication and supportive counselling
3. Control group
What did he find?
Patients in the two combination groups showed lower symptom levels than control, although there were no difference in rates of hospital readmission
Therefore, this is a strength as it supports the diathesis stress model as when drugs and CBT/drugs and counselling are combined people have better outcomes
However, a weakness is that if relapse/readmission rates are same as control group it suggests treatments are short term and not a fix for long term illness
Jarvis and Okami (2019) suggest this argument is the same as claiming that because alcohol reduces shyness, shyness is caused by a lack of alcohol.
This is known as treatment causation fallacy, where we believe that because a treatment is effective in treating symptoms, this then validates the cause of the disorder (i.e that there are biological and psychological causes).
Why is this an issue?
Because we have a poor understanding of Sz - we assume that because the treatment works that the explanation is correct but there could be other,unexplored explanations of Sz that we have not yet to understand.
The role of urbanisation: Sz is more commonly diagnosed in urban areas than rural ones. This statistic is sometimes used to justify the interactionist approach, as it is considered that the urban environment is more stressful and thus acts as a ‘trigger’ for the development of Sz.
What is the drawback of this?
However, it may be that Sz is more likely to be better diagnosed in cities, due to better health care, or that people with a greater vulnerability for Sz (those aged 18-25) are more likely to migrate to cities.
