Interactionist approach to schizophrenia

    Cards (10)

    • Interactionist approach
      = An approach that acknowledges that there are biological, psychological and social factors in the development of schizophrenia.
      • Biological factors include genetic vulnerability and neurochemical and neurological abnormality.
      • Psychological factors include stress, resulting from life events.
      • Social factors include poor quality interactions in the family.
    • Diathesis stress model
      = An interactionist approach to explaining behaviour. Both a vulnerability to schizophrenia and a stress trigger are necessary in order to develop schizophrenia.
      • One or more underlying factors make a person particularly vulnerable to developing schizophrenia but the onset is triggered by stress.
    • Meehl's model
      • If the person does not have the schizophrenic gene then no amount of stress would lead to schizophrenia.
      • However carriers of the gene, chronic stress through childhood and adolescence and the presence of a schizophrenic mother could result in the development of the disorder
    • Modern understanding of diathesis
      • Now clear that many genes appear to increase genetic vulnerability only slightly, there is no single schizophrenic gene= polygenic.
      • Also include a range of factors including psychological trauma so trauma also becomes the diathesis rather than the stressor.
      • Read proposed a neurodevelopmental model in which early trauma alters the developing brain and can seriously affect many aspects of the brain.
      • The hypothalamic pituitary adrenal system can become overactive making a person more vulnerable to later stress.
    • Modern understanding of stress
      • Includes anything that risks triggering schizophrenia.
      • Recent research into factors triggering an episode of schizophrenia has concerned cannabis use. Cannabis is a stressor because it increases the risk of schizophrenia by up to 7 times. This may be because cannabis interferes with the dopamine system.
      • However most don't develop schizophrenia because they lack the vulnerability factors
    • Treatment
      • Interactionist approach acknowledges both biological and psychological factors in schizophrenia and is therefore compatible with both biological and psychological treatments.
      • Associated with combining antipsychotic drugs and psychological therapies. (CBT)
      • In Britain it is increasingly standard to treat people diagnosed with schizophrenia with a combination of antipsychotic drugs and CBT.
    • Evaluation- support for vulnerability and triggers
      • Investigated the impact of both genetic vulnerability and a psychological trigger.
      • A high genetic risk group were compared to a control group of adoptees without family history of schizophrenia.
      • Found that high levels of criticism, hostility and low levels of empathy were strongly associated with the development of schizophrenia but only in high genetic risk group.
      • Shows a combination of genetic vulnerability and family stress can lead to greatly increased risk of schizophrenia
    • Evaluation- diathesis and stress are complex
      • Multiple genes in multiple combinations influence diathesis.
      • Stress also comes in many forms, including dysfunction parenting.
      • Diathesis can also be influenced by psychological factors and stress can be biological.
      • Houston, showed that childhood sexual abuse emerged as the major influence on underlying vulnerability to schizophrenia and cannabis use as the major trigger.
      • Means that there is multiple factors, both biological and psychological affecting both diathesis and stress supporting the modern understanding.
    • Evaluation- real world application
      Strength= combination of biological and psychological treatments.
      • A practical application is the combination of drug treatment and psychological therapies. Studies show that combining treatments enhance their effectiveness
      • Tarrier found that participants in both medication and therapy showed lower symptoms following the trial than the medication only group, though there was no difference in hospital readmission.
      • Means there is a clear practical advantage to adopting an interactionist approach to schizophrenia in terms of superior treatment outcomes.
    • Evaluation- counterpoint
      • Jarvis and Okami point out that saying that a successful treatment for mental disorder justifies a particular explanation is the logical equivalent of saying that because alcohol reduces shyness, shyness is caused by lack of alcohol. The logical error is called the treatment-causation fallacy.
      • Therefore we cant automatically assume the success of combined therapies means interactionist explanations are correct.
    See similar decks