outline and evaluate psychological explanations of schizophrenia

Question 1

outline dysfunctional thought processes

Answer 1

leading to hallucinations > metarepresentation: cognitive ability to reflect on thoughts & behaviour

dysfunction here would disrupt ability to recognise own actions & thoughts being carried out by ourselves rather than someone else, explaining auditory hallucinations

> delusions, lack of reality testing: schizophrenic individuals fail to test reality of experiences

e.g. hearing buzzing they are unlikely to pin this down to medical conditions such as tinnitus and think they are receiving coded messages (delusions of grandeur)

Question 2

outline family dysfunction

Answer 2

schizophrenogenic mothers: Freida Fromm-Reichmann (1948) proposed psychodynamic explanation for schizophrenia based on patient accounts from childhood

• cold, rejecting, controlling & create family climate characterised by tension & secrecy > persecutory delusions

double bind: children who receive contradictory messages from parents more likely to develop schizophrenia

e.g. mother ‘give me a hug’ but then saying ‘you are too old for a hug’ > child receives conflicting messages & one invalidates other

prevents development of internally coherent construction of reality & in long-terms manifests as symptoms

Question 3

strength 1

Answer 3

supporting research evidence

stirling et al 2016

compared 30 schizophrenic patients with control of 18 healthy patients on a range of cognitive tasks; including the stroop test. found that patients took over 2x as long to name the colours compared to the control

findings consistent with friths theory of central control dysfunction, strengthening cognitive explanations of schizophrenia

Question 4

limit 1

Answer 4

could be considered reductionist

cognitive explanations break it down through through lens of dysfunctional thought processing, ignoring other factors

e.g. cognitive explanations ignore role of genetic & neural factors despite evidence could be that problems caused by low neurotransmitters then caused cognitive deficits

suggests perhaps biological & cognitive factors together produce symptoms of schizophrenia (diathesis-stress model), undermining credibility of psychological explanations as they are over simplistic in their explanation of schizophrenia

Question 5

strength 2

Answer 5

supporting research evidence

read et al 2005

reviewed 46 studies and concluded 69% of schizophrenic females had suffered a history of physical and/or sexual abuse in childhood. 59% in men.

suggests traumatic childhood experiences are associated with increased risk of schizophrenia in adulthood, strengthening family dysfunction as an explanation for schizophrenia

Question 6

limit 2

Answer 6

has harmful ethical implications

when research negatively affects the rights of people outside the study

e.g. concept of a schizophrenogenic mother places blame on schizophrenic parents. this adds additional trauma to parents who are likely to bear lifelong responsibility for their childs care

suggests family dysfunction as an explanation of schizophrenia could prove harmful to society. this also could explain why since the 1980s, the concept of a schizophrenogenic mother has greatly declined