Psychological explanations of SZ Flashcards
What is the double-bind theory in relation to SZ?
Contradictory verbal or non-verbal messages being expressed, usually by a parent towards a child.
What is the effect of the double-bind theory?
Prevents the development of an internally coherent construction of reality.
Can lead to typically negative symptoms of SZ (social withdrawal).
What is expressed emotion in relation to SZ?
Members of the family being too honest with their emotions (not filter).
What are examples of expressed emotion?
-Verbal criticism
-Overinvolvement in patients life
-Hostility, anger and rejection towards the patient.
What is the effect of expressed emotion?
Can lead to decreased self esteem and social withdrawal as they are made to feel worthless and given little freedom over their lives.
Give an advantage of family dysfunction.
+Supporting evidence from Patino et al.
Found that ps who had experienced 3 out of a possible 7 problems had 4x the normal level of vulnerability to SZ.
Suggests family dysfunction increases the likelihood of life stressors triggering the onset of SZ.
Give disadvantages of family dysfunction.
-Research lacks scientific rigour.
Often gather info from pps themselves (self reports, interviews etc), pps could lie because of demand characteristics and so the research lacks validity.
-Overlooks biological factors.
It could be a combination of a genetic abnormality causing a reduction of brain matter and an oppressive family environment, that leads to symptoms of SZ.
What do cognitive explanations of SZ focus on?
Dysfunctional thought processing.
What is a lack of meta-cognition in relation to SZ?
The lack of the ability to be aware of our own thoughts and behaviours, and behaviours of others.
What does a lack of meta-cognition result in?
Being less able to distinguish between internally generated experiences and external noised (e.g. hearing voices).
What is a lack of central control in relation to SZ?
A lack of the ability to suppress automatic responses while we perform deliberate actions instead (no filter).
What does a lack of central control result in?
Can result in symptoms of diagnosed speech as thought disorder (delirament).
Evaluate the cognitive explanation for SZ.
+Has real life applications.
Get SZ patients to do CBT to make more sense of their hallucinations and delusions.
-Hard to establish cause and effect.
Could just be a consequence of neural correlates.
