Evaluations Of Biological Explanations For Schizophrenia

Question 1

evaluations Of Biological Explanations For Schizophrenia

Answer 1

> evidence for genetic susceptibility 
> mixed evidence for dopamine on schizophrenia 
>problems with neural correlates 
> mutation can occur 
> there are psychological factors

Question 2

evidence for genetic susceptibility

Answer 2

• link between genetic similarity and shared risk of SCHIZ are closely related
• EX adoption studied show that children of SCHIZ sufferers have a higher risk of SCHIZ even if adopted into a family with no SCHIZ
  -EX Tienari’s study where in group 1= 19,000 children with genetic risk were adopted by Finnish mothers and group 2= children with no risk were adopted by finnish mothers who has no genetic risk
• found that those in homes with high EE increased vulnerability for those with the genetic vulnerability but not for the others
• genetics thus make people more vulnerable
  STRENGTH
  shows how genetics have a large influence in developing SCHIZ which support the explanation

Question 3

mixed evidence for the role of dopamine on schizophrenia

Answer 3

• evidence that high, low and no levels of dopamine can cause SCHIZ
  -EX Curran found that amphetamines ( cause high levels of dopamine) cause SCHIZ symptoms in non sufferers
  -EX tauscher found that antipsychotic drugs reduce dopamine in SCHIZ and cause SCHIZ
  -EX ripke et Al found that not just dopamine causes SCHIZ also glutamate neurotransmitter
• hard to identify exact cause for schizophrenic patients
  limitation
• all demonstrate biological determinism but theres no strong evidence of which one is right
  LIMITATION
  hard to provide appropriate treatment for sufferers

Question 4

problem with neural correlates

Answer 4

• they don’t tell us causes of symptoms
• EX juckel- found correlation between levels of activity in the ventral striatum and negative symptoms
• problem is that this can suggest many different causes
  . negative symptoms send less information to the VS
  .problem in the VS causes negative symptoms
  . another factor could influence both Co variables
• can’t identify what causes the other just suggests there a relationship between the co-variables
  LIMITATION
  doesn’t actually help with treatment as it doesn’t identify causes of symptoms

Question 5

role of mutation

Answer 5

• SCHIZ can occur when there’s no family history of the disorder
• mutation can occur in parents DNA for example in sperm cells
• EX there’s been found to be a positive correlation between paternal age ( age risk of sperm mutation) and risk of SCHIZ
• found that fathers under 25- 0.7% risk of SCHIZ and over 50- 2% risk of SCHIZ
• shows that as men get older the risk of sperm mutation is higher
  -demonstrating biological determinism
• only problem is that you can’t identify cause of the sperm mutation that may cause this such as radiation, poison or viral infection
  STRENGTH
  suggests strong biological cause for SCHIZ but it is just a correlation so not useful for treatments as it cant identify causes to allow specific treatment to occur

Question 6

there are psychological factors

Answer 6

• evidence of psychological factors involved in SCHIZ such as the environment
  -EX family dysfunction such as the schizophrenic mother
  . fromm-reichm believes mothers experience of SCHIZ effects how they act towards children ( cold,rejecting manner)and this behaviour increases chances of child developing SCHIZ
• explains impact of nurture on SCHIZ rather than nature
• biological explanations may not apply to all sufferers suggesting that psychological explanations may be better
  LIMITATION
  biological approach may not be best to purely diagnose SCHIZ from , suggests the need of an interactionist approach to explaining SCHIZ