Psycological explanations Flashcards
(17 cards)
What are the three characteristics of parents of schizophrenics
- high level of interpersonal conflict ls (argumets)
- difficulty communicating with eachother
- being excessively critical and controlling of their children
What are the three factors of family dysfunction?
schizophrenogenic mother
double bind theory
expressed emotion and schizophrenia
Explain the schizophrenogenic mother
this is based in what was heard from patients about their childhood
- they spoke about a particular type of parent the ‘schizophrenogenic mother’ meaning schizophrenia causing
mother is cold rejecting and controlling and tends to create a family climate characterised by tension and secrecy this leads to distrust developing into paranoid delusions and then schizophrenia
Explain the double bind theory
the child finds themselves trapped in a situation where they fear doing the wrong thing but received mixed mgs
they feel unable to comment on the unfairness and seek clarification
when they get it wrong they’re punished by withdrawal of love leaving them both a confusing understanding of the world
this can **lead to disorganised thinking and paranoid delusions **
this is just a RISK FACTOR
Explain expressed emotion and schizophrenia
negative emotion expressed towards a patient by their cares such as:
• verbal criticism often accompanied by violence
• hostility, including anger and rejection
• emotional over involvement including needless self sacrifice
these high levels of EE are a serious source of stress for the patient, and is an explanation for relapse
the source of stress can trigger the onset of schizophrenia in a vulnerable person
What are strengths of the family dysfunction as an explanation of schizophrenia
- supported by evidence
What is a limitation of family dysfunction as an explanation for schiz
data is retrospective
weak evidence
Evaluate supporting research as a strength of Family dysfunction as an explanation of schizophrenia
P: Supported by research into family dysfunction as
a risk factor. There is evidence to suggest that difficult family relationships in childhood are associated with
increased risk of schizophrenia in adulthood
E: 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 a history of physical abuse, sexual abuse or both in childhood. For
men the figure was 59%. Adults with insecure attachments to their primary carer are also more likely to have
schizophrenia.
E: There is thus a large body of evidence linking family dysfunction to schizophrenia.
L: There is prospective evidence linking family dysfunction to schizophrenia but not a huge amount and results have
been inconsistent. Validity in retrospective data becomes an issue as information tends to be unreliable as it
relies on patients recalling information from their past. Recall of childhood relationships may be affected by their
schizophrenia
Evaluate the use of retrospective data as a limitation of research into family dysfunction as a limitation
P: Most of the evidence uses retrospective data
E: Information about childhood experiences was gathered after the development of symptoms, and the
schizophrenia may have distorted patients’ recall of childhood experiences. This creates a serious problem of validity.
A much smaller number of studies (e.g. Tienari et al.) have been carried out prospectively, i.e. they followed up
children following childhood experiences to see if the childhood experience predicted any adult characteristics.
E: There is prospective evidence linking family dysfunction to schizophrenia but not a huge amount and results have
been inconsistent. Validity in retrospective data becomes an issue as information tends to be unreliable as it
relies on patients recalling information from their past. Recall of childhood relationships may be affected by their
schizophrenia
Evaluate weak evidence as a limitation of family dysfunction as an explanation of schizophrenia
P: We have weak evidence for family-based explanations.
E: Although there is plenty of evidence supporting the broad principle that poor childhood experiences in the family are
associated with adult schizophrenia, there is almost none to support the importance of the schizophrenogenic
mother or double bind.
Both these theories are based on clinical observation of patients, and early evidence involved assessing the
personality of the mothers of patients for ‘crazy-making characteristics’ – an approach that makes many modern
psychiatrists wince
E: Another problem with dysfunctional family explanations for schizophrenia is that they have led historically to parentblaming. Parents, who have already suffered at seeing their child’s descent into schizophrenia and who are likely to bare lifelong responsibility for their care, underwent further trauma by receiving the blame for the condition. This is literally adding insult to injury.
L: However, Berger found that schizophrenic patients reported a higher recall of double bind statements (conflicting messages) by their mothers than non-schizophrenic patients. However, the parents of manic patients also
display deviant communications so it cannot be a specific causal factor in schizophrenia.
What is the congnitive explanation of Schizophrenia
focuses on the role of mental processes and attempts to explain schiz in terms of faulty cognitions
What is Meta representation?
the cognitive ability to reflect on thoughts and behaviours giving us insights to our own intentions and goals also allowing us to interpret the actions of others
- dysfunction would disrupt our ability to recognise our own actions and thoughts as being carried out by ourselves rather than someone else
- this explains hallucinations of voices and delusions such as insertion
What is central control?
the ability to suppress automatic responses while we perform deliberate actions instead
Dysfunction leads to disorganised speech and thought disorder could result from the inability to suppress automatic thoughts and speech triggered by other thoughts
What are strengths of the cognitive explanation of schizophrenia
supporting evidence
What is a limitation of the cognitive explanation of schizophrenia
we dont know the direction of causality
Evaluate supporting evidence as a strength of the cognitive approach as an explanation of schizophrenia
P: Evidence to support the idea that information is processed differently in the mind of the schizophrenia
sufferer.
E: Stirling et al compared 30 patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia with 18 non-patient controls on a range of cognitive tasks including Stroop Test, in which ppts have to name the ink colours of colour words,
suppressing the impulse to read the words in order to do this tasks. In line with Frith’s theory of central control
dysfunction, patients took over twice as long to name the ink colours as the control group.
E: Although there is a mass of evidence like this to show that information processing is different in the mind of schizophrenia sufferers, there is a problem with cognitive explanations for schizophrenia. Links between symptoms
and faulty cognition are clear.
L: However, this does not tell us anything about the origins of those conditions or of schizophrenia. Cognitive theories can explain the proximal causes of schizophrenia, i.e. what causes current symptoms but not the distal causes, i.e. the
origins of the condition.
Evaluate that we don’t know the direction of causality as a limitation of the cognitive approach as an explanation of schizophrenia
P: We dk the direction of causality.
E: We have a mass of information concerning abnormal cognitions as well as a mass of information about abnormal biology causing schizophrenia.
However, it remains unclear what causes what, including whether cognitive factors are a cause or are a result of the neural correlates and abnormal neurotransmitter levels seen in schizophrenia.
E: There are many different explanations for schizophrenia, but it is the physiological theories that have received the
most research support to date. The importance of physiological explanations of schizophrenia, does not, however, deny the role that psychological factors play in the onset of the disorder.
Current thinking is that a ‘diathesis-stress’
relationship may be at work, with a physiological predisposition (the diathesis) for schizophrenia only developing into the disorder if other significant psychological stressors are present in the person’s life.
