Paychological Explanations For Schizophrenia

Question 1

Family dysfunction

Answer 1

Double bind theory- Bateson et al describe how a child may be regularly traced in situations where they fear doing the wrong thing but receive conflict to messages about what counts is wrong they cannot express their feelings about the unfairness of the situation when they get it wrong the child is punished by withdrawal of love. They learn the world is confusing and dangerous leading to disorganise and delusions
Expressed emotion- the level of emotion mainly negative expressed including verbal criticism of the person schizophrenia, hostility towards them and emotional over involvement in their life. High levels of expressed emotion caused stress in the person may trigger on schizophrenia or relapse.

Question 2

Cognitive explanations

Answer 2

Dysfunctional thought processing- low levels of information processing in some areas of the brain suggest cognition is impaired
Central controlled dysfunction leads to speech poverty central control being the cognitive ability to suppress automatic responses while performing deliberate actions people with schizophrenia experience derailment of thoughts because each word triggers automatic associations that they cannot suppress

Question 3

One limitation to psychological explanations of schizophrenia

Answer 3

There’s almost no evidence to support the importance of traditional family based theories for example schizophrenogenic mother and double bind both theories are based on clinical observation of parents and informal assessment of the personality of the mothers of patients. This means that family explanations have not been able to explain the link between childhood trauma and schizophrenia.I

Question 4

Another limitation - parent blaming

Answer 4

Research in this area may be useful showing the insecure action running childhood trauma affect vulnerability to schizophrenia however research is socially sensitive because it can lead to parent blaming this creates additional stress for parents already seen their child experience schizophrenia and taking responsibility for their care. This means that research into family dysfunction and schizophrenia will always be very controversial but worth it for potential benefits.

Question 5

A strength and evidence linking family dysfunction to sz

Answer 5

69% of women 59% of a man with schizophrenia have a history of physical or sexual abuse. This strongly suggest that family dysfunction does make people more vulnerable to schizophrenia.