Define Family Dysfunction
Abnormal processes within a family
E.G. cold parenting and poor communication
What is the Schizophrenogenic Mother?
When a mother is colds, rejecting and controlling she tend to create a tense family climate.
This leads to distrust and paranoid which ultimately leads to Sz
What is the Double Blind Theory?
Where a developing child is often put in a situation where they fear doing something wrong but they receive mixed signals so they feel unable to comment on the situation.
Then when they do get it ‘wrong’ they are punished with the withdrawal of love.
This can lead to Sz symptoms like paranoia and disorganised thinking
What is Expressed Emotion (EE)?
The level of emotion expressed towards a patient by their carers.
High levels of emotion can lead to stress in the patient which can cause a relapse or trigger Sz in a genetically vulnerable person
What are the 3 elements of EE?
1) Hostility
2) Verbal Criticism
3) Emotional over-involvement
What are the 2 types of dysfunctional thought processing according to Frith et al?
Metarepresentation
Central Control
Define Metarepresentation
If dysfunction occurs here what will happen?
The cognitive ability to reflect on thoughts, behaviours and to interpret others’ actions.
Dysfunction would disrupt our ability to recognise our own actions and thoughts as being carried out by ourselves rather than someone else
Define Central Control
If dysfunction happens here what occurs?
The cognitive ability to suppress automatic responses while performing deliberate actions
Dysfunction causes disorganised/derailment of speech and thought
Who was able to associate difficult family relationships with the risk of developing Sz in adulthood? How?
AO3
Read et al
they reviewed 46 studies and concluded that 69% of women diagnosed with Sz had a history of physical and sexual abuse
What is a fault in Read et al’s review?
AO3
The evidence was gathered after the ppts development of symptoms - so the Sz may have distorted the ppts ability to recall their childhood experience
Thus decreasing the validity and reliability
There is no sufficient evidence supporting family dysfunction, why?
AO3
It led to parent blaming which added to the parent’s trauma of having to suffer through their child’s descent into Sz.
Also, there was a shift into community care which could be one of the factors for the decline of Family Dysfunction theories
Why is the direction of causality a limitation of psychological explanations?
AO3
it is unclear whether cognitive dysfunction is the cause or the result of neural correlates and abnormal neurotransmitter levels seen in Sz.
Questions the validity and credibility of both psychological and biological explanations
