random

Question 1

limitation of family dysfunction explanation - unreliable

Answer 1

• the supporting evidence is unreliable
• burger conducted interviews in which he asked people with schizophrenia to recall childhood experiences so he was using the self report technique
• it is possible that patients lack objectivity because their memory may be inaccurate and impaired by the disorder
• the patients also might have responded to demand characteristics caused by investigator effects therefore reducing the reliability of the supporting evidence

Question 2

what is the aim of cbt?

Answer 2

• to challenge schizophrenia patient’s irrational beliefs and thought processes
• so, in cbt, doctors attempt to challenge and dispute these delusional beliefs

Question 3

what are the 4 steps of cbt?

Answer 3

1) the patient explains their symptoms
2) normalisation - the doctor explains that the patient’s feelings are normal
3) challenging - the doctor challenges the beliefs and experiences
4) alternative explanations - the patient is helped to develop alternative explanations for beliefs and experiences

Question 4

strength of cbt - NICE review support

Answer 4

• support for cbt comes from a review conducted by NICE
• in the studies that NICE reviewed, patients were either given CBT together with their antipsychotic medication or where just give antipsychotic medication alone. these were lab experiments with an independent groups design
• NICE found that treatments that included CBT were more effective at reducing symptoms of schizophrenia
• this indicates that combining CBT and medication is more effective

Question 5

limitation of CBT - availability of cost

Answer 5

• it is an expensive treatment
• for instance, the delusional beliefs and dysfunctional reasoning that schizophrenic patients display are persistent. they have had these beliefs for a long time. so, doctors cannot get rid of these irrational beliefs in one session
• for every therapy session, there is a cost as we need to pay the therapist. as well as this, cbt usually occurs one on one with the patient, therefore, lots of therapists are needed for lots of sessions which is expensive
• this is a problem because it limits the availability of the treatment

Question 6

what is family therapy and what is the aim of family therapy?

Answer 6

• a psychological intervention that involves both the patient and their family members
• family therapy aims to reduce the level of family conflict that the patient experiences

Question 7

what are the 3 steps involved in family therapy and what do they achieve?

Answer 7

1) educating the family about the symptoms of sz - tries to improve families beliefs about and behaviour towards sz
2) teaching new coping strategies to manage the patient’s symptoms
3) changing the family’s communication style - aims to reduce levels of expressed emotion I.e reduce the level of emotion generally but especially negative emotions such as anger and guilt which creates stress. reducing stress is important to reduce the likelihood of relapse

Question 8

strength of family therapy - cost effective

Answer 8

• NICE conducted a review of the cost of family therapy compared to just giving patients standard antipsychotic medication
• adding therapy on top of medication is more expensive as the NHS has to pay therapists as well as medication. but, we’ve seen family therapy helps people with schizophrenia. after the therapy, people with schizophrenia are less likely to relapse
• so NICE found that when patients were given family therapy, they were less likely to go back into hospital, reducing the number of schizophrenic patients admitted into hospital therefore, the cost of having to look after these patients is reduced

Question 9

limitation of family therapy - studies supporting

Answer 9

• the studies investigating family therapy lack validity and reliability
• in pharoah’s review, only looked at studies that had random allocation and control groups. later, it emerged that many of the studies that said they used random allocation hadn’t. this means that participant variables werent controlled which could have influenced the results
• lack of randomisation may mean the researchers knew which experimental group the patient’s were in meaning the researchers weren’t blind to the experimental group. so, the researchers might have been more likely to lack objectivity and display personal bias when they rated the severity of the patient’s symptoms
• so family therapy might not be as effective as its claimed to be