Psychological explanations SZ

• acknowledges the role of biological factors - abnormal brain activity producing visual and auditory hallucinations
• Further features emerge as people try to make sense of the hallucinations

• First experience worrying sensory experiences - turn to others to confirm the validity
• other people fail to confim - believe others are hiding the truth
• Reject feedback from others and develop delusional beliefs that they are being manipulated and persecuted by others.

• Stressful life events cause the onset of SZ e.g. death of a close relative act as a trigger
• Individual may have a biological predispostition for SZ but only some people with such will develop the disorder - those who experience stressors

• Prior to a SZ episode, patients reported twice as many stressful life events compared to a healthy control group - low and unchanging level of stressful life events
• Illustrates the link

• Meyer Lindberg - link between excess levels of dopamine in the prefrontal cortex and dysfunctions in working memory
• Working memory dysfunction is associated with the cognitive disorganisation typically found in SZ. 
• biological factors underlie some of the early symptoms of SZ

Yellowlees - trialled a machine that can deliever 'virtual auditory and virtual hallucinations.'

Intention to show SZ that their hallucinations are not real.

However, no evidence that this will provide a successful treatment

• Brown and Birley's research is retrospective - data collected after events have occured
• Once a person has developed SZ  asked questions about events leading upto the onset.
• Recall would be negatively affected by events surrounding the onset - unreliable

• Prospective studies are preferable - studied after the onset of the disorder
• Hirsch - followed 71 SZ patients over a 48 week period.
  • Clear that life events made a cumulative contribution in the 12 months preceeding relapse rather than having a more concentrated effect in the period just prior to the episode.

• Not all research supports life events
• Van Os et al - no link between life events and the onset of SZ. 
• Prospective part - patients who had experienced a major life event went on to have a lower incidence of relapse.

• research is correlational
• cannot infer a causal relationship between stressful life events and SZ
• early symptoms were the cause of life events e.g. divorce
• may be a consequence rather than a cause

• Biological explanations have better research support
• large body of evidence - role of genetic factors
  • Gottesman - greater degree of relatedness the greater risk of SZ