A03

• Point: A strength of the family dysfunction explanation is that there is research evidence to support the link between difficult family relationships and schizophrenia.

  Evidence: For example, a review revealed that 69% of female patient with schizophrenia (59% for men) had a history of physical abuse, sexual abuse or both 

  Explain: Furthermore, another study showed people with schizophrenia were more likely to have insecure attachments to their primary caregiver.

  Link: Therefore, this supports the idea that family dysfunction is a risk factor and makes people more vulnerable to schizophrenia.
• A :( of the family explanation is that generally there's X enough evidence to support any of the explanations.

  e.g, there is little evidence to support the schizophrenogenic mother or the double-bind theory as these were originally based on patient observations and flawed personality assessments of their mothers.

  Furthermore, these explanations have led to parent-blaming, with parents receiving the blame for the condition which potentially could be traumatic.

  :., the lack of evidence and negative consequences of these seriously question the validity and usefulness of such family explanations.
• :) of the cognitive explanations is that there's strong evidence to support the link between dysfunctional information processing + schizophrenia.

  Striling (2006) compared people with schizo with controls on the Stroop Test and found that people with schizo took twice as long to name the ink colour compared to the control group.

  This is bcoz ppl w schizo had trouble suppressing the tendency to read the word out loud, which is the goal of the Stroop Test.

  Therefore, this confirms that people with schizophrenia have impaired cognitive processes and adds validity to the explanation.
• However, a :( of the cognitive explanation is that it does not tell us about the origins of schizophrenia.

  e.g., most research shows that there is indeed a clear link between faulty cognitions and schizophrenia symptoms, but fails to go beyond that.

  This means it cannot provide an explanation for distal causes (i.e. genetic or family dysfunctions), which focuses on the root of what caused the condition.

  :. the cognitive explanation can only provide a partial explanation for schizophrenia, in terms of proximal causes (i.e. what causes current symptoms)