DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILIES AO3

• Berger (1965) found schizophrenics reported higher recall of double bind statements by their mothers than non-schizophrenics. This supports the social psychological explanation of schizophrenia, suggesting that double bind statements are a contributory risk factor in the development of this disorder.
• Berger links the double bind statements, HOWEVER👎🏼 this may not be completely true as it’s only focused on mothers rather than any other family member. Not only that, this data has been collected through the recall of schizophrenics and recall could be said to be unreliable and unfactual as they may not remember everything or may make stuff up due to their disorder.
• Joan Liem (1974) found that the communications offered in a structured task by the parents of 11 sons with schizophrenia were no more disordered than the communications offered by parents of 11 sons who did not have schizophrenia. Liem suggested studies that found a difference in parental communications could be due to parents adapting their communication styles when dealing with a schizophrenic child.
• Liem criticises the Double Bind theory and did not find a significant difference in the communication between parents with schizophrenic child compared to parents with non-schizophrenic child suggesting that evidence in this field is inconsistent and therefore should be reviewed with caution.

  It could be that the communication difficulties are an effect rather than the cause of schizophrenia.
• Methodological issues suggest that The Double Bind communications may be a symptom of pathology in the parent and therefore, it could be the pathology rather than the superficial communications which is the greater problem. This is a criticism of this explanation as people's recall of past events are inaccurate and it would be irresponsible to draw conclusions from this type of research as it is unreliable and lacks validity.
• From the reductionist point of view this explanation shows that whilst this explanation does recognise family communication and potentially wider environmental issues, it fails to recognise biological factors, the impact of stressful life events and cognitive factors. The biological explanation clearly demonstrates that genetics and levels of dopamine impact the relapse rates of schizophrenic individuals.
• It is deterministic as it suggests that individuals have no free will in their communication skills, and these are purely reflective of communication with family members. This criticises dysfunctional families because it is an incomplete explanation of developing schizophrenia. It is a simplistic explanation which cannot be applied to all schizophrenic patients.