SZ- Psychological Explanations

Question 1

What are the two main psychological explanations for schizophrenia?

Answer 1

1) Family dysfunction

2) Cognitive explanations

Question 2

In which three ways can be the family dysfunction explanation be explained?

Answer 2

1) The schizophrenogenic mother
2) Double-bind theory
3) Expressed emotion

Question 3

Describe the schizophrogenic mother explanation.

Answer 3

• The schizophrenic mother is a psychodynamic explanation for SZ proposed by Fromm-Reichmann (1948), who noted that many of her patients with schizophrenia described a particular type of parent, which she termed ‘schizophrenogenic’ (schizophrenia causing)
• These characteristics are: cold, rejecting and controlling as well as creating a family climate full of secrecy and tension.
• This leads to an atmosphere of distrust and the development of paranoid thoughts which become delusions.

Question 4

Describe the double bind theory.

Answer 4

• Bateson et al (1956) suggested double blinds theory as a contributing factor to the development of SZ, the double blind theory emphasis the role of communication style within a family.
• He suggested that children who frequently receive contradictory messages from their parents are more likely to develop schizophrenia, because this prevents them from developing an internally coherent construction of reality.
• For example, if a mother tells her son that she loves him, yet at the same time turns her head away in disgust, the child receives two conflicting messages about their relationship on different communicative levels, one of affection on the verbal level and one of animosity on the non-verbal level (one invalidates the other). The child is unable to decide what is ‘good’ behaviour, and is often punished for ‘wrong’ behaviour.
• This may lead to the child developing a false concept of reality and an inability to communicate effectively, explaining delusions, hallucinations and disorganised speech.

Question 5

Describe the expressed emotion theory.

Answer 5

• The expressed emotion theory is a family communication style that involves criticism, hostility and emotional over-involvement including needless self sacrifice.

Examples :

• Hostility - “you are a total waste of space”
• Emotional over-involvement - “ I do so much for you, its hard for me”
• Criticism - “ you do not know how to do anything right”
• High levels of this may influence relapse rates, or the onset of schizophrenia in a vulnerable person.
• The negative emotional climate in these families arouses the patient and leads to stress beyond his or her already impaired coping mechanisms, triggering a schizophrenic episode.

Question 6

Evaluate family dysfunction as an explanation for schizophrenia. (STRENGTHS)

Answer 6

1) RESEARCH SUPPORT
- Berry et al (2008) found that adults with insecure attachment to primary caregiver are more likely to have SZ.

• Read et al (2005) revised 46 studies of child abuse and SZ and found 69% of women and 59% of men with schizophrenia in their sample had a history of physical and/or sexual abuse in childhood, supporting that family dysfunction is a risk factor in developing schizophrenia

CP: information about childhood experiences were gathered after development of SZ symptoms and SZ may have distorted the person’s recall of childhood memories, creating serious issues with validity

Question 7

Evaluate family dysfunction as an explanation for schizophrenia. (LIMITATIONS)

Answer 7

1) WEAK RESEARCH EVIDENCE
- Research in this area is often retrospective, meaning that patients with the disorder are asked to think back to their childhood and explain what it was like.
- Such recollections are unlikely to be completely trustworthy, therefore reducing the validity of the evidence and therefore the explanation.

2) LED TO PARENT BLAMING
- There is hardly any evidence supporting the particular explanations of the schizophrenogenic mother or the double-bind theory. Research into this area is socially sensitive as it can lead to the blame for the disorder being put on the parents who are having to watch their child experience symptoms of SZ. However, psychologists should not shy away from investigating socially sensitive topics as the benefits of research can outweigh the costs and have real world application in attachments, childcare, parenting skills, social work and much more.

3) NO FAMILY CONTACT
- Critics of the expressed emotion model would state that schizophrenic patients have minimal contact with their families, possibly because the patient is institutionalised and the amount of family contact is controlled, or because the family withdraw themselves.
- Therefore critics have argued that there is a minimal chance of expressed emotion being a causal factor for schizophrenia.

Question 8

What does the cognitive explanation argue?

Answer 8

Cognitive explanations focus on the role of dysfunctional thought processing contributing to schizophrenia symptoms.

Frith (1992) identified two types of dysfunctional thought processing ; central control and metarepresentation

Question 9

What are the two main kinds of dysfunctional/faulty thought processing?

Answer 9

1) META REPRESENTATION: : the ability to reflect on, and have insight into, our own intentions and the actions of others. Dysfunction in this area could mean that the individual is unable to recognise that their own thoughts are actually theirs, so leading to hallucinations (voices) and delusions (thought insertion).
2) CENTRAL CONTROL: the ability to suppress automatic responses/triggers in response to stimuli. Dysfunction in this area could mean that the individual cannot suppress automatic thoughts that get triggered by other thoughts. This could explain disorganised speech and disordered thinking.

Question 10

Evaluate the cognitive explanation (+)

Answer 10

1) Stirling et al (2006) found that participants with schizophrenia took much longer than participants without schizophrenia to complete a Stroop test (a test where the colour a word is written in must be named, even though the word is a different colour). This supports that schizophrenia sufferers have problems with central control (ability to supress automatic thoughts).

Question 11

Evaluate the cognitive explanation (-)

Answer 11

1) Abnormal cognitions may be one of the effects/consequences of schizophrenia, rather that actually causing the development of it in the first place. This weakens cognitive explanations, as they are unlikely to be a complete explanation of the disorder.

Question 12

reduced processing in ventral striatum

Answer 12

associated with negative symptoms

Question 13

reduced processing in temporal and cingulate gyro

Answer 13

associated with hallucinations