Psychological explanations for schizophrenia

• Psychological explanations - Family dysfunction

  Linking S to childhood and adult experiences of living in a dysfunctional family

  • The schizophrenogenic mother
  • Double blind theory
  • Expressed emotion and schizophrenia
• Family dysfunction - The schizophrenogenic mother (Fromm-Reichmann)

  • Psychodynamic explanation

  SM:

  • Cold, rejecting and controlling
  • Creates a family climate characterised by tension and secrecy

  Leads to distrust then paranoid delusions - Then ultimately schizophrenia
• Family dysfunction - Double-blind theory (Bateson et al)

  • Family climate is important in the development of S and emphasised role of communication style within a family

  Child trapped in situations:

  • Mixed messages
  • Unsure whether to comment on unfairness of seek clarification
  • Punished with withdrawal of love - As punishment

  Sees world as confusing and dangerous - Disorganised thinking and paranoid delusions
• Family dysfunction - Expressed emotion

  • Negative emotions towards a person with S by carers

  Elements:

  • Verbal criticism - Accompanied by violence
  • Hostility towards the person - Anger and rejection
  • Emotional over-involvement in the persons life

  Stress out patient

  Explanations of relapsed

  Diathesis-stress model - Can be trigger of those who are vulnerable to S
• Psychological explanations - Cognitive explanations

  • S - Associated with several types of abnormal info processing
  • Disruption to normal thought processing

  Reduced processing:

  • Ventral striatum - Negative symptoms
  • Temporal and cingulate gyri - Hallucinations
• Cognitive explanations - Frith et al - Two types of dysfunctional thought processing

  • Metarepresentation
  • Central control
• Cognitive explanations - Metarepresentation

  • Reflect on thoughts and behaviour

  Dysfunction of M:

  • Disrupt ability to recognise own actions and thoughts

  Explains hallucinations of voiced and delusions e.g. Thought insertion
• Cognitive explanations - Central control

  • Ability to suppress automatic responses while perform deliberate actions

  Inability to suppress:

  • Disorganised speech and thought
• Evaluation for psychological explanations of schizophrenia - Support for family dysfunction as a risk factor

  Read et al: Reviewed under 50 studies of child abuse and S

  • Conclusion - 70% of women + 60% of men with S - History of physical or sexual abuse or both

  HOWEVER universal weakness

  • Info about childhood experiences - After development of symptoms
  • S could have distorted recall of childhood experiences

  Strength: Supports validity of explanation however supporting evidences validity can be brough into question
• Evaluation for psychological explanations of schizophrenia - Weak evidence for family-based explanations

  • Not as much evidence to support schizophrenogenic mother or double blind
  • Based on clinical observations
  • Lead to parent blaming
  • Life long responsibility for causing S in their child
  • Decline of SM and DB - Parents no longer tolerated them

  Limitation: Theory lacks validity as it is not supported and socially sensitive as it is offensive to patients
• Evaluation for psychological explanations of schizophrenia - Strong evidence for dysfunctional information processing

  • Stirling et al: Compared 30 ppl with S and around 20 controls on cognitive tasks - Stroop test
  • Findings - S people took twice as long to name ink colours as control group
  • Cognitive explanation - Links made but origins of S not explained

  Limitation: Cognitive theories explain proximal causes (Current symptoms) of S but not distal (Origins)