Psychological explanations for Schizophrenia

Question 1

Define:

• family dysfunction
• cognitive explanations
• dysfunctional thought processing

Answer 1

Family dysfunction- Abnormal processes within family functioning ie) cold parenting, mixed communication, or high levels of expressed emotions. Can all act as risk factors in the development or maintenance of schizophrenia.
Cognitive explanations- explanations focusing on mental processes ie) thinking, language and attention.
Dysfunctional thought processing- Refers to when information processing isn’t functioning normally and leads to undesirable consequences.

Question 2

In which 3 ways have psychologists attempted to link Schizophrenia to adult and childhood experiences of living in a dysfunctional family (family dysfunction)?

Answer 2

1) The ‘schizophrenogenic mother’ - Frieda Reichmann, a psycho dynamic approach. Cold, rejecting and controlling parent.
2) Double-bind theory- Bateson et al. Mixed communication style. (just a risk factor)
3) EE - Expressed emotion and schizophrenia. Negative emotions a carer reflects on patient:
- verbal abuse (usually accompanied by violence)
- hostility towards patient (w/ anger and resentment)
- emotional-over involvement in patients life and needless self-sacrifice. (all results in stress of patient.)

Question 3

Explain the cognitive explanations of schizophrenia

Answer 3

Christopher Firth identified 2 types of dysfunctional thought processing that could underlie some symptoms:

• meta representation- impaired meta representation would result in an inability to distinguish our own thoughts and actions from those of others. This explains hallucinations like hearing voices and delusions like thought insertion.
• central control- impaired central control means a failure in the ability to repress automatic responses. This explains derailment and speech disorganization.

Question 4

What are the key evaluation points for the psychological explanations of schizophrenia?

Answer 4

• Direction of causality
• Strong supporting evidence for family dysfunction as a risk factor
• weak evidence for family based explanations
• strong evidence for dysfunctional thought processing
• evidence for biological factors isn’t really considered enough

Question 5

explain the AO3 for direction of causality

Answer 5

Mass info. about abnormal cognitive processing or abnormal biological functioning is available, yet the causes are unclear. Is dysfunctional thought processing a result of biological factors like neural correlates and abnormal neurotransmitter levels?

Question 6

explain the AO3 for weak evidence for family-based explanations

Answer 6

Little evidence for schizophrenogenic mother and double bind, any evidence is based on clinical observations looking for ‘crazy making characteristics’, which make modern psychiatrists wince (Harrington).

Also leads to guilt as parents of patients blame themselves.

Question 7

explain the AO3 for Strong supporting evidence for family dysfunction acting as a risk factor

Answer 7

Large amount of evidence ie)
Read et al - reviewed 46 studies of schizophrenia and childhood abuse and found that 69% of female schizophrenic patients suffered sexual/physical abuse as a child and 59% for male patients.
-Barry et al -adults w/ insecure attachments to primary carer= more likely to have it.
Weakness is validity as recall of schizophrenics can be distorted and only some productive evidence, like Tienari et al tends to exist.

Question 8

explain the AO3 for strong evidence for dysfunctional thought processing

Answer 8

Stirling et al used 18 schizophrenic patients vs a control group and did the stroop test and found patients took twice as long as control group to state the ink colours.

weakness= fails to tell us about the ORIGINS of schizophrenia, just provides proximal causes of schizophrenia.