Psychological explanations

• Family dysfunction as an explanation of schizophrenia suggests it is the interpersonal relationships within the family that result in the symptoms.
• The schizophrenogenic mother is a psychodynamic theory proposed by Reichman who said that a mother who is emotionally unstable can cause schizophrenia in her child. This is as a result of characteristics such as rejecting and controlling the child, acting cold towards them and creating an environment of tension.
• The double bind theory suggests the child gets mixed messages and feels unable to do the correct thing. This could be being told to be more independent but then being overprotected and criticised when they attempt to be independent. Bateson suggested that this results in disorganised thinking and paranoia.
• Expressed emotion is verbal interactions the caregiver has with a person with schizophrenia:

  • Exaggerated involvement - Indicating the sufferer is a burden via self sacrifice.
  • Criticism and control - Indicated to the behaviour of the sufferer.
  • Hostility - Either verbal, physical or emotional, suggesting rejection.
• Cognitive explanations for schizophrenia are based on the assumption that the ability to process thoughts is faulty.
• Firth proposed an 'attention deficit' theory which suggested schizophrenia is due to a faulty attention system unable to filter out preconscious thoughts and therefore giving too much significance to information which would usually be filtered out, overloading the mind. This accounts for the positive symptoms.
• Meta-representation is the cognitive ability to reflect on

  thoughts and behaviour. This dysfunction disrupts ability to

  recognise thoughts as our own which leads to hallucinations Individuals also experience having thoughts placed in the mind by others (delusions).
• Central control dysfunctions are issues with the cognitive ability to suppress automatic responses while we perform deliberate actions.
• Strengths of the psychological explanations:

  • Supporting studies - Stirling (2006) conducted a stroop test on 30 patients with schizophrenia and 18 control patients. This involved naming the ink colours on words without saying the word it read. This is difficult as there is a desire to say the words that need to be controlled. Findings showed it took the schizophrenic patients twice as long to name the colours compared to the controls. This suggests patients with the disorder do have dysfunctional thought processing, in this case a faulty central control.
• Strengths of the psychological explanations:

  • Evidence for the link between family dysfunction to schizophrenia - Read reported that adults with schizophrenia were more likely to have insecure attachments. 69% of women and 59% of men also reported a history of sexual abuse, suggesting the environment they were surrounded by as children triggered the development of the disorder.
• Strengths of the psychological explanations:

  • Supporting research - Firth supported the ideas with biological / cognitive neuroscience studies. 30 participants with various symptoms of the disorders had PET scans which showed a reduction in blood flow in the frontal cortex with patients who experienced negative symptoms. There was also increased activity in the temporal lobe responsible for the retrieval of memories with patients having a distorted reality. This suggests both biological and cognitive factors play a role in the development of schizophrenia.
• Limitations of the psychological explanations:

  • Limited explanation - Psychological explanations do not accommodate for biological factors. Since such biological factors can explain the distal origins of schizophrenia (eg - in terms of dopamine levels in the brain, candidate genes and patterns of activity coinciding with symptoms / neural correlates), this suggests that psychological explanations would best be reserved for the proximal causes, as these causes are more likely to be most affected by psychological factors.
• Limitations of the psychological explanations:

  • Socially sensitive research - Indicates schizophrenia is caused by the family and parents whom already have a difficult time dealing with the patient. This may add to the stress and anxiety by making the family think they are responsible, leading to intense guilt.