psychological explanations

• Evaluate the psychological explanation for sz: family dysfunction (+) supported by research 


  Read supported that difficult family relationship are associated w sz by reviewing 46 child abuse studies + sz, concluded 69% adult F in-patients with sz had a history of physical/sexual abuse or both in childhood. M =59%. adults with insecure attachment to primary carer = more likely to have sz = large body of evidence linking family dysfunction and sz.
• Evaluate the psychological explanation for sz: family dysfunction (-) data is retrospective

  info about childhood experiences gathered after development of symptoms, sz may have distorted recall of patients childhood experiences = serious issue of validity. prospective studies following up children with these childhood experiences to see if it consistently predicted any adult characteristics was done, and there was some data linking it but not a lot and was inconsistent = retrospective data unreliable
• Evaluate the psychological explanation for sz: cognitive explanation (+) strong evidence to suggest that info is processed diff in mind of a schizophrenic


  30 patients with a diagnosis of sz compared to 18 non-pateint controls on a range of cognitive tests including the Stroop test - central dysfunction is proven when patients took over twice as long to name the ink colours as the control group. however, links between symptoms and faulty cognitions are unclear.