Psychological Explanation AO3

• what are evaluation points of Schizophrenogenic Mothers?

  • little evidence - Waring & Ricks, mothers of SZs tended to be anxious and incoherent (correlational not causation), COUNTER Wild et al - father of SZs play dominant role not mother
  • causation - is it mothers personality, or is it strain of having a schizophrenic child cause hostility, or development of SZ later in life cause difficulties bonding
  • could explain why SZ runs in families
  • Incomplete theory - warm mothers, no SZ cold mother, no mother - doesn't account for all situations
  • blame/guilt placed on mothers
• how is causation an evaluation point of double-bind?

  • DB suggests ambiguous communication from parents leads to SZ, but perhaps being SZ changes the way in which family members communicate with you, they may show frustration/hostility, although they try to to hide it, it shows in paralinguistics
  • furthermore, third variable problem which causes both the SZ and double-bind communication - shared genes may cause poor communication and also cause SZ - alternative biological explanation may be better
• what are some other evaluation points about double-bind?

  • could explain why SZ runs in families - perhaps learnt internal working model on communication/parenting
  • sexist approach - usually mothers spend more time with children, mothers more likely to be held accountable
  • there's confusion about what DB statements are and how to identify them, meaning research lacks validity, what are you measuring? - Schuman, argued confusion around defining what DBS even are has impeded the research and provided little support to the theory
• how is causation an evaluation point of expressive emotion?

  • although EE has more evidence than DB - can't provide a complete explanation of SZ as can't show causation of illness in the first place - no evidence that EE can trigger SZ in someone who has never had it before - interactionist?
  • EE can trigger relapse, higher EE, more likely to relapse - living with a SZ may change family communication, may be stressful and cause hostility from family
  • third variable - shared genes causes hostile communication, or environment - stress from poverty may trigger and lead to more EE
• what are some overall AO3 points of family dysfunction?

  • ethics - blame on mothers, responsibility of child's illness causing greater stress/anxiety - further EE and DB?
  • reductionist - ignores family environment e.g. poverty
  • RWA - greater understanding of role of family in SZ, can be used to improve therapies
  • Genetics - Genain quadruplets, all SZ - interactionist?
  • evidence - Read et al - high number of SZs suffered some kind of abuse in childhood - 'parent-blaming'
  • methodological - self-report, SZ overemphasised view of world, social desirability bias of family? - invalid
  • CAUSATION
• what research support is there for central control dysfunction?

  • Stirling et al 2006 - showed how SZs got on with various cognitive tasks including the Stroop test, their very slow/low scores underlined the central control theory from Frith
  • Shows SZs do have problems with attention and processing information in the environment, which could explain their disorganised speech
  • validity undermined by causation argument
• how is correlation not causation a limitation of dysfunctional thinking theory of SZ?

  • psychological explanations don't explain underlying causes of cognitive deficits/bias and where they originate
  • is it the cognitive dysfunctions which cause SZ, or is it SZ that causes the cognitive dysfunctions?
  • possible third variable - genetic? environment? can be seen as reductionist as it doesn't take into account biological factors
  • psychological explanations alone only provide partial explanations for SZ
• how is medication a limitation of dysfunctional thinking theory of SZ?

  • many SZs on medication post-diagnosis, can affect brain and therefore behaviour e.g. mask cognitive deficits
  • SZs who used in research, behaviour will be altered and understated by medication (as their job is to reduce the severity of symptoms)
  • findings lack generalisability to non-medicated SZ and conclusions won't accurately affect behaviour of SZs
  • lack validity? are you measuring SZ behaviours/affects or the affects of medication on SZ behaviour?
  • conducting research on non-medicated is impractical/unethical