dysfunctional families

• What does the behavior of one family member indicate in a dysfunctional family system?

  The behavior may be a manifestation of a problem occurring within the wider family system
• Which model of abnormality focuses on childhood and upbringing?

  Freud’s Psychodynamic Model
• What does the id represent in Freud's Psychodynamic Model?

  The id demands immediate gratification and is the selfish part of your personality
• According to Freud, what may happen to a child raised in a dysfunctional family?

  The child may regress back to the ID stage of development
• What do bizarre thoughts and behaviors represent in Freud's theory?

  They represent the EGO’s attempts to regain control of the psyche
• What term do psychodynamic theorists use to describe a family that contributes to schizophrenia?

  Schizophrenogenic family/mother
• What did Laing & Esterson (1970) propose about schizophrenia?


  Schizophrenia results from an attempt to deal with confusion and unhappiness caused by an individual’s social and family environment
• What are the two types of marital issues identified in dysfunctional families?

  • Marital Schism: Conflict and disorder between parents, competing for affection.
  • Marital Skew: Imbalance of power favoring a dominant parent, leading to stress and conflict.
• What is the Double Bind Theory proposed by Bateson (1956)?


  In a double bind situation, a person receives contradictory signals, creating internal conflict
• How do schizophrenic symptoms relate to the Double Bind Theory?


  Schizophrenic symptoms represent an attempt to escape from the double bind
• What did Bateson report regarding parents of schizophrenia patients?

  Bateson reported clinical evidence illustrating the use of double bind communication by parents
• What did Liem et al (1974) find regarding communication patterns in families with a schizophrenic member?


  Abnormality in parental communication was a response to the schizophrenic symptoms, not vice versa
• What is the significance of high expressed emotion (EE) in families?

  High EE is more likely to cause stress than an environment of low EE
• What did Brown (1972) find regarding relapse rates in schizophrenia patients?


  Patients with high EE were more likely to relapse compared to those with low EE
• What did Vaughn and Leff (1976) discover about relapse rates in high EE homes?


  They found a 51% relapse rate in high EE homes compared to 13% in low EE homes
• What are the evaluations of Expressed Emotion in relation to schizophrenia?

  • Accepted as a maintenance model with extensive research support.
  • Treatment programs educate families on managing EE.
  • Many patients are estranged from families, complicating EE dynamics.
  • Ethical concerns about blaming families for high EE.
• What are the limitations of family studies in schizophrenia?

  Family studies are based on retrospective evidence, which is unreliable
• What ethical concerns arise from blaming families in schizophrenia studies?


  It raises questions about whether high EE evolves from living with someone with schizophrenia
• What is a limitation of the double bind theory in schizophrenia?

  There is limited evidence for the double bind theory compared to expressed emotion
• How might dysfunctional parenting relate to schizophrenia?

  Dysfunctional parenting may be a response to a dysfunctional child
• Frieda Fromm-Reichmann (1948) : schizoprenogenic mother


  based her theory on reports from her own patients about their childhoods and their relationship with their mothers.
• Bateson (1972) emphasised risk not cause


  such patterns of communication were not the main type of communication, and that the double-bind represented a risk factor, not a cause of schizophrenia.
• Berry et al. (2008)


  • There is evidence that suggests that difficult family relations in childhood are associated with increased risk of schizophrenia in adulthood.
  • found that adult schizophrenia patients are more likely to display insecure attachments to their primary caregiver.
• Read et al. (2005)


   carried out a review of 46 studies of child abuse and schizophrenia.

  • They concluded that 69% of adult women and 59% men in-patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia had a history of physical abuse, sexual abuse or both in childhood.
• Low validity of findings

  • information about childhood experiences was collected after the development of symptoms.
  • These symptoms might have distorted patients' recollections of childhood experiences because of the stress of raising a child with the illness.