psychological explanations for schizophrenia Flashcards
(8 cards)
how does schizophrenia link to family dysfunction
schizophrenigenic mother, double bind theory, expressed emotion
what is the schizophrenogenic mother
proposes a psychodynamic explanation for schizophrenia based on accounts from her patients about their childhoods, patients spoke about a schizophrenogenic mother that is cold and rejecting and controlling and creates a family climate characterised by tension and secrecy- leads to distrust developing into paranoid delusions and then schizophrenia
what is the double bind theory
the family climate is important for this, if a child finds themselves in a situation where they fear doing the wrong thing but receive mixed messages they feel unable to comment on the unfairness and seek clarification- when they get it wrong theyre punished with withdrawal of love. this leads to disorganised thinking and paranoid delusions. this is just a risk factor
what is expressed emotion
this is the level of emotion in particular negative expressed towards a patient by their carers
verbal criticism of the patient
hostility towards the patient
emotional over involvment in the life of the patient
these high levels of EE in carers towards the patient are a serious source of stress for the patient, this type of stress triggers the onset of schizophrenia
what is the cognitive explanation for schizophrenia
dysfuctional thinking explains symptoms of schizophrenia
theres poor memory function in people with schizophrenia
people with schizophrenia are poor at understanding their own thinking as distinct from an enviornmental stimuli
people with schizophrenia are poor at recognising their own output
central control deficits may explain disordered thinking and langauge deficits
what is the A03 for family dysfunction
supported by research-read et al reviewed 46 studies of child abuse and schizophrenia and concluded that 69% of adult women in patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia had physical or sexual abuse. for men the figure was 59%
relies on retrospective data- information about childhood experiences was gathered after the development of symptoms, the schizophrenia couldve disorted patients recall of childhood experiences. results may not be consistent affecting validity.
weak evidence based on family explanations- theres no studies for EE or the schizophrenogenic mother or the double bind theory.
what is the a03 for the cognitive explanation
theres strong evidence for dysfunctional information processing-stirling et al compared 30 patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia to 18 non patient controls on a range of cognitive tasks including the stroop test which pps have to name the ink colours of colour words. patients took over twice as long to name the ink colours as the control group.
