psychological explanations for sz Flashcards
(13 cards)
psychological explanations suggest that the development of sz is due to
abnormal family communication styles created by diffrent variances
the three styles are
schizophrenogenic mother
double bind
expressed emotion
despite none of these three factors explicitly causing schizophrenia they are involved in
its development and maintenance as contributory factors
Fromm-Reichmann suggested that there is a class sz mother who is characterised as being cold and rejecting . this means that
the family climate is tense and lacking honesty , which leads to the development of paranoia and anxiety
these manifest themselves into positive symptoms of sz - paranoid delusions
double bind theory proposed bt Bateson suggests that within a family , the child receives mixed messages (verbally affectionate/ non verbally hostile) about what is right and wrong . thus creating
a tense atmosphere or controlling parenting style means that the child is unable to clarify these messages or voice their opinions about conflicting messages.
When the child makes a mistake they are punished through withdrawal of love.
This mean that the child sees the world as unfair and confusing , this is reflected in the sz symptoms of disorganised thinking and paranoid delusions
expressed emotion describes the level and type of emotion shown towards the patient by their carer , and is often a significant source of stress for the patient , this means that they are
less likely to take their medication or comply to cognitive therapies provided by their hospital or institution hence being a leading cause for replace.
examples of high levels of negative expressed emotions include verbal criticism of patients , needless ‘ sacrifices ‘ for the patient and violence with hostility
Frith et al suggested that dysfunctional thought processes including metrepresentation and central control which contribute to
the development of sz
metarepresetnation is the cognitive ability to differentiate between our own actions and the actions of others , allowing us insight into the intentions and emotions as others as well as maintaining a realistic/functional view of our own goals , dysfunctions in this however
have been associated with auditory hallucinations and specifically thought insertion due to the inability to differentiate between our own thoughts and that of others.
This may lead to paranoid delusions due to the contents of inserting others’ thoughts into the mind of the patient.
central control is the cognitive ability to carry out a deliberate action whilst suppressing an automatic response , and is often measure using the stroop test.
this test involves identifying the colour of Rach word , where there is often a discrepancy ie brown in the colour yellow.
therefore the automatic response of reading the word must be suppressed to allow for identification of the font colour , however people with sz
often have dysfunctional central control abilities and so often suffer from speech derailment because they cannot suppress the automatic associations that each new word in a sentence brings , and so begin to talk off topic.
+ there is evidence supporting the idea that dysfunctional thought processes are implicated in the development of sz and that faulty central control skills may be responsible for
some SZ symptoms, as demonstrated by Stirling et al (2006). The researchers found that SZ sufferers made significantly more mistakes and twice as long to complete the task, compared to a healthy neurotypical control group. However, it should be emphasised that dysfunctional thought processing can only offer explanations for the indirect, proximal causes of SZ, and not the distal causes, meaning that such theories can explain the symptoms but not the origin of SZ. This limits the utility of psychological explanations for schizophrenia.
- a comparison can be made between biological and psychological explanations for sz
a weakness of psychological explanations for SZ is that they do not accommodate for biological factors. Since such biological factors can explain the distal origins of schizophrenia (i.e. in terms of dopamine levels in the brain, candidate genes and patterns of activity coinciding with symptoms/ neural correlates), this suggests that psychological explanations would best be reserved for the proximal causes of SZ, as these causes are more likely to be most affected by psychological factors.
- a second major weakness would be the lack of support for family based explanations
The idea of the schizophrenogenic mother was based upon historical observations of families with SZ members, where observers would be searching for ‘crazy-making characteristics’ (Harrington, 2012) which is hardly an objective and reliable indicator of the likelihood of developing SZ. Psychological explanations also place an increasing amount of blame on the families and caregivers of patients with SZ, as opposed to accommodating for the possibility of a genetic/biological predisposition. For example, caregivers/ parents are further hurt when they are forced to accept responsibility for their patient’s schizophrenia, which is likely to have already upset family life and relationships through the development of severe and intrusive negative and positive symptoms. This may explain the sudden popularity of community care in the 1980s, which could have marked parents refusing to take responsibility for their child’s condition, seeing as they are so dedicated to their care.
the three types of expressed emotions are
criticism, hostility and over involvement
