Psychological Explanation of Schiz (2) (2)

8/13/2019 Psychological Explanation of Schiz (2) (2)

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Psychology, SZ

Outline Clinical Characteristics of Schizophrenia (5 marks)

The characteristics of Schizophrenia (SZ) can be categorised into twodifferent types Type ! symptoms ("ositi#e Symptoms) and Type $ (%egati#esymptoms)& Type ! characteristics include things such as delusions'

hallucinations and paranoia& "atients may eperience things such as hearing#oices' which are often said to be from od or the *e#il& Type $ symptomshowe#er show more catatonic beha#iour' for eample a loss of dri#e' a lack ofemotion or catatonic stupor& On the other hand' there are some patients whoeperience both type ! and type $ symptoms' these are therefore categorisedas *isorganised as they will ha#e disorganised beha#iour and speech&

There is a !+ chance of de#eloping SZ if neither of your parents iscarrying the gene' howe#er this increases to $,+ if one parent is diagnosed'and to -.+ if both parents are& /t is said to occur within men when they are $5or younger' howe#er it occurs at an older age of $50-5 for women&

*iscuss psychological eplanations of Schizophrenia

/n the !15,2s and .,2s it was belie#ed that if you belonged to adysfunctional family that you were more likely to suffer from SZ due to thedysfunction of communication within the family& 3ccording to the differentpsychological eplanations of SZ this is because of the high emotional tensionand the many secrets and close alliances that are kept in the family&

One psychological eplanation of SZ was put forward by 4ateson et al(!15.) who looked at childhood as a base for de#eloping SZ' for eample theinteractions children ha#e with their mothers& is eplanation' the *ouble 4indtheory' states that SZ can occur due to conflicting messages gi#en fromparents to their children' for eample when a parent epresses care but doesso in a critical way& This means that the child will become confused as themessage they are gi#en is conflicting' as one message effecti#ely in#alidatesthe other& 3s a result' the child is left with self doubt and e#entual withdrawal&6periences such as these are said to cause SZ as they pre#ent thede#elopment of an internally coherent construction of reality' in the end theyare likely to eperience SZ type symptoms such as delusions andhallucinations' and in some cases' paranoia& This theory therefore suggeststhat the home en#ironment and the relationships a child has with their parentsthrough messages plays a role in the de#elopment of SZ& This is because

there is no clear template of a lo#ing relationship7 instead the child is alwaysunsure if they ha#e done something wrong due to the conflicting messagesthey are gi#en&

3 strength of this theory is the supporting e#idence from 4erger& efound that SZ patients reported a higher recall of double bind statements(conflicting messages) by their mothers than non SZ patients& owe#er thisreliability of this study was criticised as patients recall may be affected by theirSZ& There are said to be problems as it is called a retrospecti#e recall' as thedata is unreliable& 8or eample' delusions may occur meaning that thepatients are recalling things that didn2t happen&

3nother criticism of the *ouble 4ind theory is the inability to replicate

the findings across studies& This is because of indi#idual differences' and the


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fact that as most of the memories were from childhood' you cannot go back intime to assess the #alidity of the recollections&3n additional criticism is the fact that the awthorne 6ffect may ha#eoccurred& 3s it was an obser#ation of the families' there is no proof that theparents will act as they normally do around their families' therefore the #alidity

of the results reduces as the results will not show a true picture of how theyreally are as a parent&3lso' the families are studied retrospecti#ely' meaning they are studied longafter the mental disorder may ha#e affected the family system& This meansthat #arious family routines will ha#e been disrupted so you will be unable tosee how the family acted before a child de#eloped SZ& This is because li#ingwith someone with SZ is difficult and distressing for all the family as it has animpact on e#eryone' not 9ust the patient of SZ&3 final criticism is that it is said to be an unconstructi#e theory as the theoryblames the parents and families for a child de#eloping SZ& 4y suggesting thata parent has caused SZ is at least unhelpful and at most highly destructi#e' as

they not only ha#e to cope with li#ing with someone with SZ' but they are thentold that it is their fault' which will lead them to feel guilty and hurt as they areblamed for a poor upbringing&

3 second psychological eplanation of SZ is 6pressed 6motion& Thiswas de#eloped in the late !1:,2s when psychologists were more interested inhow the family might play a part in the course' rather than the cause of SZ&8or eample' 4rown found that patients who returned to homes where therewas a high le#el of epressed emotion' for eample lots of hostility' criticismand o#er in#ol#ement' they showed a greater tendency to relapse incomparison to those who returned to homes where there was a lower le#el ofepressed emotion& This was supported by ;inszen who found this to be fourtimes more likely& This study suggests that a high le#el of emotion in thefamily en#ironment plays a role in the SZ patients2 disorder becoming worse&There is also support for this eplanation from alafi and Torabi (!11.) who studied epressed emotion within familiesin an /ranian Culture' where mothers are etremely o#er protecti#e andsubmissi#e' and fathers are more re9ecting as they are not able to comforttheir child as it is seen as weak in their culture& They found a higherpre#alence of epressed emotion was one of the main causes of relapse' asthere is a lot of negati#ity in the families which in the end leads to high le#elsof stress which they find it #ery difficult to cope with& This suggests that amiture of emotion from parents in the /ranian culture plays a role in the SZ

patient relapsing&


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owe#er this theory was criticised as it is not clear whether 66inter#ention was the key element of the therapy or whether aspects of thefamily inter#ention might ha#e helped& Therefore this leads to confusion ande#entual withdrawal& Therefore there are other aspects of inter#ention thatcould be useful as it is unclear as to whether 66 is helping the family as a

unit&3 second criticism is that many patients with SZ are either estranged fromtheir families or ha#e minimal contact' and yet there is no e#idence that suchpeople are less prone to relapse& Therefore it is unclear whether there is animpact&

On the other hand' there are se#eral strengths to this theory& 8oreample' there is a lot of supporting research conducted to make the theorymore #alid& The 66 is a well established ?maintenance@ model of SZ andmany prospecti#e studies ha#e been conducted which support the 66hypothesis across many cultures' therefore the theory is also applicable crossculturally& This is also because negati#e emotion will most likely be found in

many different cultures&There has also been an argument as to whether the 66 model is a

cause or an effect of SZ& The 66 model has becoming widely accepted thatresearch is now focussing on relati#es of those with SZ in order to understandbetter which aspects of high and low 66 relate to relapse& There is e#idenceto support that the family members are not held responsible for a personde#eloping SZ' for eample they tend to attribute positi#e symptoms such ashallucinations and delusions to the person2s mental illness& 4ut on the otherhand' there is also e#idence that some attribute negati#e symptoms' foreample social withdrawal' to the person2s personality characteristics and inthe end they are said to become o#er critical in an attempt to change thosebeha#iours&O#erall' it was concluded by ;opez that families characterised by negati#eaffect (criticism) has much higher relapse rates in comparison to those withpositi#e affect (warmth)&

Overall, an excellent piece of work as always, X. You have thoroughly mentioned all relevantresearch and remembered to elaborate after each study.

(Target ! "y overall concern is that you need to cut down on some pieces of research and

criticism.

(Target ! #lso, you need to remember that you could a synoptic explanation (an alternative

explanation. #s there are $ marks allocated for thisyou can really buffer up your mark.

"arks

#%& ! 'linical 'haracteristics )*#%& ! +)&%#% ! &%)&%

-ynopticity ! %)*lease see comment above about synopticity.

Overall "arks, 24/30 = A*/ell 0one.


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Psychology, SZ

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Psychological Explanation of Schiz (2) (2)