A2 Psychology Sam Wong
Outline and evaluate psychological explanations of schizophrenia
The incidence of schizophrenia is not distributed evenly across the population. The highest rates of schizophrenia are found in urban areas, among people of the lowest socioeconomic group. The incidence of schizophrenia among the very poor is four times greater than in the highest socio economic grou0p. Two hypotheses have been suggested to explain these findings: the social causation hypothesis and the social drift hypothesis.
According to the social causation hypothesis, it is the experience of being a member of a low socioeconomic status group that explains the higher incidence of schizophrenia. Unemployment, poverty, high crime rate and poor housing induce a great deal of stress and feelings of alienation, which in turn make people more vulnerable to schizophrenia.
Whilst the social drift hypothesis, it is accorded that this hypothesis people with schizophrenia drift down the social ladder into the lowest socioeconomic group. As a result of their disorder they may be unemployed or be restricted to low paid and unskilled jobs.
Support for the social causation hypothesis comes from findings that schizophrenia is almost seven times more common in African-Caribbean people than in white people – although the incidence of schizophrenia in Caribbean countries is similar to that of white people in this country (Cooper 2005). These findings suggest that the experience of racism, added to other inner-city stressors of unemployment, poor housing and poverty, makes people more vulnerable to schizophrenia.
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Peer Reviews
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Quality of writing
Quality of Writing: In terms of spelling, grammar and punctuation the essay is fine. Technical terms such as ‘double-blind’ and ‘expressed emotion’ are used successfully – this shows the reader that the writer understands the topic fully. In criticism, the writer doesn’t follow conventions in terms of structure – there is no introduction or conclusion which prevents the essay from reaching the highest mark bands. To add, the way the essay is laid-out lets it down; it is unconventional to use so many one-sentence-paragraphs and so this should be avoided. Some of these short paragraphs could have been condensed into one longer paragraph on the same topic (such as the 3 points on expressed emotion). These could be connected with words like ‘furthermore’, ‘however’ and ‘nevertheless’ so that it sounds more flowing and natural.
Level of analysis
Level of Analysis: They provide many good evaluative points for instance, evidence for the theory of expressed emotion from Kavanagh. This is then also evaluated for having no direction of causality. Giving a piece of research to support and then also evaluating this research is good as it shows a greater depth of understanding – rather than simply learning lists of studies. Nevertheless a lot of points could be more fully developed for example “A positive outcome of research into expressed emotion has been its application in treatment programmes – supporting family members in controlling levels of expressed emotion.†One sentence is acceptable to explain a point but probably won’t get you top marks. To improve this the writer needs to expand and elaborate on the point (they could say what the treatment programmes involve and compare them to alternative treatments. Why are they better? Are they cheaper? Lower relapse rates? More ethical?) . Finally, as mentioned above, a conclusion needs to be reached in order to fully answer the ‘evaluate’ part of the question; the writer should pick a/a few theories and say which is better and why.
Response to question
Response to Question: The writer gives a competent description of a wide range of explanations of schizophrenia (social causation hypothesis, the social drift hypothesis, double-bind communications, expressed emotion, genetics and environment). Additionally many plausible evaluations are given – and these work in a logical order following each descriptive point. For example the writer describes the double-blind hypothesis – “Double-bind messages contain a contradiction between a verbal communication (termed the primary communication) and a nonverbal communication (the metacommunication).†and then criticises it accordingly – “There has been very little support for the double-bind hypothesis…â€Â. However, despite a decent amount of solid information, the essay lacks an introduction and conclusion which would help to make the overall opinion of the writer more obvious, and hence raise the standard of the essay. The intro could simply contain: a definition of schizophrenia and a quick summary of which explanations are going to be explored. Then the conclusion could come to a decision on which is the best explanation and why (or say that several are equally valid).
