O+E Psychological Explanations of Schizophrenia

AO1 - Psychological Explanations of Schizophrenia

Psychodynamic - Sz due to regression o pre-ego state where ID is in charge befroe realistic understanding of world developed and attempts to re-establish ego control -
happens in response ot harsh environment/traumatic event
Sz = infantile stage with symptoms such as delusions of grandeur relfecting primitive conditions and e.g. hallucinations reflecting attempts to re-establish ego control
failure of PCG through indequate care to help infant overcome trauma/deal w/ emotions/distinguish between internal + external world to develop sense of self
symptoms of Sz occur in adolescence as threats to fragile sense of self are most likely to occur
Cognitive - impaired thought processes characterise Sz - cognitive deficit theories explain Sz due to attention impairment
usually we use selective attention mechanisms to filter incoming stimuli + process them to extract meaning but in SZ patients these are defective so they become overwhelmed with incoming sensory stimuli
biology acknowledged to cause original problembut too much sensory info makes person misinterpret causing hallucinations and confuse causaltiy causing delusions

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++ Psychodynamic - intuitive - e.g. if Sz represents regression to pre-ego state - may explain why children also have delusions of grandeur + delusions of control + Fromm-Reichmann 1948 - 'schizophrenogenic mothers/families' that are rejecting/over-protective/dominant/moralistic contribute to SZ - BC they are perhaps more unresponsive + can't help resolve trauma
-- Pyschodynamic - Oltmanns et al 1999 found that parents of Sz patients do behave differently to parents of other kind of patients expecially in the presence of their offspring - SUGGESTS they are not helpful in their offspring's struggle with finding their sense of self BUT this could be a consquence of Sz as well as a cause
++ Cognitive - Sz patients perform poorly on info processing tasks such as reaction time/visual tracking/STM - suggests it is attention problem - + Lindenburg et al 2002 - link between dopamine in pre-frontal cortex + working memory
Alternative theory - Biological - genetic similarities - Gottesman - children with 2 Sz parents have a 46% concordance rate - risk of individual developin Sz is directly proportional to amount of genes shared with sufferer - siblings have 9% rate. - SUGGESTS there is clear evidence that there could be a biological cause rather than psychological - even cognitive accepts there may be a biological cause

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Nature/Nurture debate not solved as evidence for Psychological and Biological factors is equally convincing - therefore could be diathesis stress model and both contribute to development of SZ
Socially Sensitive as Sz not completely understood and it may be upsetting to some people
IC + Psych Harm: - sufferers can't necesarily be deemed to be in their right mind and able to give valid informed consent - especially due to potential unpredictability of episodes. Also Psychodynamic approach may be upsetting to e.g. parents as it somehat accuses them of having a hand in their childs disease

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