Psychological Explanations for Schizophrenia
- Created by: I_Am_Trying_I_Promise
- Created on: 17-11-22 11:50
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- Psychological explanations for Schizophrenia
- Family Disfunction
- Schizophrenogenic mother
- Fromm-Reichmann's 1948 research
- Asked schizophrenic patients what their mother was like (her characteristics and behaviours) and their relationships
- Found that the
mother causes schizophrenia within the child when she is cold,
rejecting and controlling (abusive).
- She then creates a family climate characterised by tension and secrecy, which then leads to distrust that develops into paranoid delusions, then ultimately schizophrenia
- psychodynamic explanation (unresolved childhood conflict and the unconscious mind)
- Evaluation
- Strength
- Establishes a cause-and-effect relationship for why people develop schizophrenia
- Limitation
- Only focuses on the effect that mothers have, not any other family member.
- Strength
- Fromm-Reichmann's 1948 research
- Double-blind theory
- Bateson et al (1972) research
- Agreed with Fromm-Reichmann's family climate and type of communication style within families.
- However, consistency of communication within the family
climate is more important than anything else, with children fearing they are in
the wrong but receive mixed messages.
- When the child gets it wrong, they are punished through
withdrawal of love.
- This gives them a confusing understanding of the world and can be reflected in symptoms like disorganised thinking and paranoid delusions.
- When the child gets it wrong, they are punished through
withdrawal of love.
- However, consistency of communication within the family
climate is more important than anything else, with children fearing they are in
the wrong but receive mixed messages.
- Agreed with Fromm-Reichmann's family climate and type of communication style within families.
- Evaluation
- Strength
- Establishes a cause-and-effect relationship for why people develop schizophrenia.
- Limitation
- Researcher bias with Bateson et al (1972) research and lacks validity as it is only a risk factor and not a cause.
- Strength
- Bateson et al (1972) research
- Expressed Emotion
- Where the
level of negative emotion expressed to the patient is negative, usually by a carer
- Includes things like verbal criticisms (possible violence),
hostility, emotional over-involvement (needless self-sacrifice).
- If the schizophrenic person experiences high levels
of expressed emotion it can cause serious stress for the patient.
- Explains
the relapse of schizophrenic symptoms.
- Could also be a trigger (diathesis stress: genetic vulnerability and a trigger causes schizophrenia).
- Explains
the relapse of schizophrenic symptoms.
- If the schizophrenic person experiences high levels
of expressed emotion it can cause serious stress for the patient.
- Includes things like verbal criticisms (possible violence),
hostility, emotional over-involvement (needless self-sacrifice).
- Evaluation
- Strength
- Increased validity as it is supported by research.
- Limitation
- Doesn't explain the cause-and-effect relationship of why people develop schizophrenia.
- Strength
- Where the
level of negative emotion expressed to the patient is negative, usually by a carer
- Schizophrenogenic mother
- Cognitive Explanations
- Dysfunctional Thinking
- Cognitive explanation
- Focuses on role
of mental processes
- Several types of dysfunctional thought processing.
- Schizophrenia is characterised by disruption to
normal thought processes – not processing accurately.
- Reduced thought processing in the ventral striatum is associated with negative symptoms
- Reduced processing of information in the temporal and cingulate gyri associated with hallucinations.
- Lower than usual level of processing tells us that cognition is probably impaired
- Metarepresentation Dysfunction
- Frith el al (1992)
- Two kinds of dysfunctional thought processes.
- Metarepresentation
- Cognitive ability to reflect on thoughts and behaviour
- Insight into our own intentions and goals
- Interpret the actions of others
- Dsyfunction
- This could affect our ability to recognise our own actions and thoughts as being carried out by ourselves rather than someone else.
- Explains hallucinations of hearing voices and delusions like thought insertion (thoughts projected into the mind by others).
- Metarepresentation
- Two kinds of dysfunctional thought processes.
- Frith el al (1992)
- Central control Dysfunction
- Frithet al (1992)
- Cognitive ability to suppress automatic responses while we perform deliberate actions.
- Speech poverty and thought disorder could result in the
inability to supress automatic thoughts and speech triggered by other thoughts.
- Disorganised Speech
- Speech can be derailed because one-word triggers thoughts of others that are not part of the intended conversation.
- Disorganised Speech
- Speech poverty and thought disorder could result in the
inability to supress automatic thoughts and speech triggered by other thoughts.
- Cognitive ability to suppress automatic responses while we perform deliberate actions.
- Tested using the Stroop test
- Frithet al (1992)
- Dysfunctional Thinking
- Family Disfunction
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