explanations for Sz

Question 1

what are the 3 biological explanations for Sz

Answer 1

-genetics
-dopamine hypothesis
-neural correlates

Question 2

what does genetics suggest

Answer 2

-that Sz is a hereditary condition
-its polygenetic- as different combinations of genes make an individual more susceptible to Sz
–levels of neurotransmitters (dopamine) can influence if someone develop Sz

Question 3

what is some supporting evidence for the genetic explanation for Sz

Answer 3

-joesph
-tienari

Question 4

what did joesph find

Answer 4

-carried out a meta-analyisis
-MZ twins had a 40.4% concordance
-DZ twins had a 7.4% concordance

Question 5

what did tienari find

Answer 5

he conducted a twins study
found that of adoptees with Sz mother 6.7% of them also developed Sz
compared to adoptees without Sz mother had a 2% chance of developing Sz

Question 6

what does the dopamine hypothesis believe cause the positive symptoms of Sz

Answer 6

-high levels of dopamine in the mesolimbic pathway which causes overactivity in this region this leads to the positive symptoms of Sz

Question 7

what does the dopamine hypothesis believe cause the negative symptoms of Sz

Answer 7

-people with Sz have lower levels of dopamine in the frontal cortex and the underactivity causes negative symptoms.

Question 8

what is some supporting evidence for the dopamine hypothesis

Answer 8

patel-use PET scans so assess dopamaine levels and found lower levels of dopamine in the frontal cortex in Sz patients compared to controls

Question 9

what does the neural correlates explanation of Sz suggest

Answer 9

-Sz is caused by abnormal brain structure
-smaller frontal cortex and larger ventricles

Question 10

describe some supporting evidence for neural correlates

Answer 10

Torrey conducted an MRI scan of people with Sz and compared it to normal brains and found that people with Sz had 15% larger ventricles than those without which supports neural explanation of Sz

Question 11

what is some evidence against torrey study

Answer 11

However, correlation doesn’t equal causation
Don’t know which way around it is.
HOWEVER
-drugs cause side effects eg-low mood-they could also cause larger ventricles as they were on medication

Question 12

what are the 3 psychological explanations of Sz

Answer 12

-schizophrenogeneic mother
double bind theory
-expressed emotion

Question 13

what does the Schizphrenogeneic mother explanation of Sz suggest

Answer 13

-he proposed a psychodynamic explanation of Sz
-this focuses on the role of the mother in causing their child to develop the illness due to being cold and rejecting
-the mother uses the child to fuffil there own emotional needs
-this leads to tension and secrecy and leads to distrust and paranoia in the child

Question 14

what does the double bind theory suggest

Answer 14

-child receives contradictory messages from there parents
-eg-contradiction between tone of voice and content
-this leads to the child feeling stressed and confused.

Question 15

Pieces of supporting evidence for double bind theory

Answer 15

-Berger

Question 16

what did berger find

Answer 16

he found that people with Sz reported a higher recall of double bind statements by there mother
However
-self-report measure may not be valid

Question 17

what did Liem find
(opposing evidence for double-bind)

Answer 17

-measured patterns of parental communication in families with a Sz child and found that there was no difference compared to family with a non Sz child

Question 18

what is expressed emotion

Answer 18

where families persistently exhibit criticism, hostility and are overly-involved in there child life
this causes stress and confusion and causes the child to develop Sz

Question 19

what is some supporting evidence for expressed emotion

Answer 19

-hooley
-linszen

Question 20

what did hooley find

Answer 20

Hooley conducted a meta-analysis of 26 studies and found that Sz returning to a high expressed emotion environment experiences x2 the average relapse rate

Question 21

what did linszen find

Answer 21

patient returning to a high EE environment is X4 as likely to relapse that a patients family that is low in EE

Question 22

what is some opposing evidence for expressed emotion

Answer 22

Altorfer found that 1-4 of patients showed no physiological response to stressful comments from there family

Question 23

other evalution

Answer 23

perhaps having a Sz in the family is causing dysfunction rather than the other way around

Question 24

what are some strengths of the family dysfunction explanation

Answer 24

leads to family therapies which are an effective treatment

Question 25

what are the 3 cognitive factors that affect Sz

Answer 25

-dysfuntional thought processing
-five factor model
-anomolous experience

Question 26

what are the 2 types of dysfunctional thought processing

Answer 26

1. dysfunctional metarepresentation
2. dysfunctional central control

Question 26

what is dysfunctional metarepresenatation

Answer 26

the individual is ubale to recognise there own thought and actions and may attribute them to someone else which lead to halluciations

Question 27

what is dysfunctional central control

Answer 27

inability to supress automatic responses.

Question 28

what is some supporting evidence for dysfunctional metarepresenation

Answer 28

McGuire found Sz have reduced activity in the parts of the brain involvd with monitoring inner speech

Question 29

what is some supporting evidence for dysfunctional central control

Answer 29

stirling foun with 30 SZ patients compared to 18 controls that Sz took x2 as long to do the stroop test showing that they have difficulty supressing automatic associations

Question 30

what is a weakness of the cognitive explanation

Answer 30

-there are problems surrounding cause and effect we don’t know if cognitive deficts are causing the Sz behaviour or vice versa

puts blame onto the patient

Question 31

what are some practical applications surrounding the cognitive explanation

Answer 31

NICE found consistent evidence when comparing with anti psychotics that CBT was more effective as reducing symptoms
the fact that this is a treatment is based on the cognitive approach provides more evidence of cognitions affecting Sz