schizophrenia: interactionist approach

Question 1

what factors does this approach consider

Answer 1

• This approach acknowledges that there are **biological, psychological and societal factors **in the development of schizophrenia
• Biological factors include: genetic vulnerability, neurochemical and neurological abnormalities
• Psychological factors include: stress and poor interactions with the family

Question 2

explain the diathesis stress model

Answer 2

The model says that both a vulnerability to schizophrenia and a stress-trigger are necessary in order to develop the condition.

Question 3

explain Meehl’s model

Answer 3

• In the original diathesis stress model, diathesis (vulnerability) was entirely genetic, the result of a single ‘schizogene’ > The individual must have the schizogene
• If no schizogene is present, then no amount of stress would lead to schizophrenia
• But in the carriers of the gene, chronic stress, in particular in the presence of a schizophrenogenic mother could cause SZ

Question 4

modern understanding of genes in the diathesis stress model

Answer 4

• We now know that many genes each appear to increase genetic vulnerability; there is no single schizogene
• Modern views of diathesis also include a range of factors beyond the genetic, including psychological trauma. So trauma becomes the diathesis (vulnerability) rather than the stressor

Question 5

modern understanding of stressors in the diathesis stress model

Answer 5

• In the original diathesis stress mode, stress was psychological in nature, related to parenting. This is
  still important
• But a modern definition of stress includes anything that risks triggering schizophrenia
• Recent research suggests cannabis is a stressor because it increases the risk of schizophrenia up to 7 times. This is because cannabis interferences with the dopamine system.
• But most people do not develop schizophrenia after smoking cannabis which suggests there must be one or more vulnerability factors

Question 6

what is the treatment suggested by the diathesis stress model

Answer 6

CBT + drug therapy

Question 7

AO3: too simplistic

Answer 7

One weakness of the original diathesis stress model is that it is too simplistic.
The model suggests schizophrenia is due to the individual having a schizogene which makes them vulnerable to the disorder. A stressor is needed to trigger the disorder such as schizophrenic parenting style.

WEAKNESS because this is too simplistic. We have now found out that there is not one schizogene, instead there are many. Similarly, there are many forms of stressors including biological.

Question 8

AO3: evidence for role of vulnerability

Answer 8

There is evidence to support the dual role of vulnerability and stress in the development of schizophrenia.
Tienari et al found a child-rearing style characterised by conflict and criticism was correlated with risk of SZ but only in children with a genetic vulnerability (e.g. people in the control group with the same parenting style were much less at risk of SZ).

STRENGTH because it supports the idea that in order to have an onset of SZ you must first have a genetic vulnerability that is triggered by a dysfunctional upbringing

Question 9

AO3: effective treatment

Answer 9

There is support for the effectiveness of combination of treatment
Tarrier et al randomly allocated 315 patients to a medication + CBT group, medication + supportive counselling or control group. Patients in the two combination groups showed lower symptoms levels than those in the control group (medication only).

STRENGTH as this shows a clear practical advantage of taking an interactionist approach in the form of superior treatment outcomes. As drug therapy can reduce the symptoms while CBT can reduce anxiety by educating the patient on why they have such symptoms.This will help improve the patients quality of life

Question 10

AO3: treatment causation fallacy

Answer 10

Psychologists must be careful when using the effectiveness of treatment as research support for their explanations of behavior
For instance just because an interactionist treatment is effective, doesn’t mean the interactionist approach is correct e.g.schizophrenia may be purely psychological but drug treatment may still effective.
It would be an error of logic to assume that just because an interactionist treatment is effective that we should assume schizophrenias origin is interactionist . This issue is called the treatment- causation fallacy
(misconception)