A03: Psychological Explanations for Schizophrenia

• Evaluation - Psychological Explanations A03

  FD:

  +Research Support FD link to Sz (Read et al 2005) (Berry et al 2008)

  -Poor evidence base (Berger 1965)

  
  

  CD:

  -Psychological or Biological?

  +Evidence for dysfunctional thought processing

  -Only proximal origins of symptoms explained
• Research Support FD link to Sz - A03 FD

  • P: Support research exists which shows importance of family dysfunction in development of Sz.
  • E: E.G: Read et al (2005) found 69% of women & 59% of men with Sz had a history of physical abuse, sexual abuse or both.
  • E: Research by Berry et al (2008) found adults with insecure attachment type (type C or D) more likely to have Sz.
  • L: Shows the risk of family dysfunction in developing Sz, as both early trauma in childhood & poor relationships with primary caregiver been identified as risk factors. Suggests that FD make people more vulnerable to Sz.
• +A03: Dysfunctional thought processing CD: PART 1

  P:Cognitive explanation allows for more clinical experimentation vs family explanation, so lots evidence showing CD in SZ sufferers

  E:Stirling et al (2006) compared performance on a range of cognitive tasks (e.g Stroop task) in people with & without sz.

  E: As predicted by central control theory, Sz ppts took over twice as long on average to complete stroop task (name font colour) vs controls coz have central control dysfunction; lack of ability suppress automatic response, as unable to suppress impulse to read word rather than ink colour
• +A03 Evidence for dysfunctional thought processing: CD: PART 2

  E:Meyer-Linderberg (2002) found reduced activity in prefrontal cortex of Sz when they did task involving Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (testing working memory) due to deficits in working memory consistent with CD

  L: Highly controlled lab studies provide empirical support for CD explanation making it highly credible explanation. This supports biew that the cognitive proccesses of people with sz are impacted
• +A03 CD:

  P: Some theorists believe CD explanation offers more complete account of Sz compared to FD

  E: This is because it is highly probable that sz has some basis in biology and CD can be traced back to neurological abnormalities in the brain (likely to be inherited trait or chemical)

  E: Additionally CD can account for both +ve & -ve symptoms whereas FD only accounts for positive.

  L: Thus when considering best explanation, an interaction between faulty cognitions and faulty biology seems to make more sense and explain more aspects of the behaviours and symptoms experienced with Sz.
• Poor evidence base:FDA03

  P:Support for role of double bind communication (Berger 1965)

  Find sufferers: higher recall of double bind statements by mothers vs non-sz suggest this communication style implicated in sz.

  BUT, careful interpreting findings, data collected retrospectively (after onset), caution exercised as recall of sz unreliable

  Tienari et al (2004) prospective study, find weak link between Sz & FD.

  L:Results inconsistent, hard pinpoint role of family in onset of sz & it may be more contributory factor than causal. So FE not able to explain link between childhood trauma & sz.
• A03: Only proximal origins of symptoms explained - CD

  Cognitive explanations for sz are proximal explanations - they explain what is happening ~now~ to produce symptoms.

  Cognitive explanations are weaker as distal explanations (i.e what causes cognitive problems) possible distal explanations are genetic and family dysfunction.

  This means that cognitive theories alone only provide partial explanations.
• A03: Psychological or Biological? - CD

  The cognitive approach provides an excellent explanation for the symptoms of sz, suggesting it is a psychological condition.

  • However, abnormal cognition is probably partly genetic in origin and the result of abnormal brain development (Toulopoulou et al 2019).

  This means that although it has psychological symptoms, sz is perhaps best seen as a biological condition.