Psychological Explanations of Schizophrenia
Discuss research in biological explanations of schizophrenia In order for schizophrenia to be diagnosed the person needs to have two or more of the following symptoms for over 6 months. These are; thought disturbances (positive= bizarre additions to normal behaviour) such as thought insertion, hallucinations and delusions. (negative= absence of normal behaviour) Disturbances of affect/volition such as withdrawal, reduced motivation and difficulty carrying out actions. Thirdly; Psychomotor disturbances such catatatonia, stereotypy and frenetic activity. Research into psychological explanations of schizophrenia had come up with the idea that expressed emotions in families can have considerable affect. This states that families who had high expressed emotion had higher levels of concern or hostility to the sufferer of schizophrenia. This argues that high expressed emotion families can cause schizophrenia. This gives the assumption that schizophrenia can be partly caused by the onset of stress caused by families. This could result from conflicting demands and breakdown in communication with family. This can explain how a child can become confused and doubtful from parents giving conflicting demands. For example a child could be criticised for not giving hugs, when the child tries to give a hug it will be rejected. In this situation the child can not win and can not avoid
Psychological Explanations for Schizophrenia
Psychological explanations Biological factors alone cannot account for the origin and maintenance of schizophrenia and therefore psychological explanations look at other important contributory factors shown through psychodynamic views, family models and cognitive models. According to one psychodynamic view, schizophrenia arises from the inability to test reality for instance, draw up logical conclusions and to be able to distinguish between the internal and external world. It is also said that childhood experiences can then lead to the unconscious conflict within the ego, id and super-ego which can contribute to schizophrenia. Although this approach provides us with an alternative explanation to schizophrenia, it is very weak. This is a retrospective approach to studying schizophrenia which means overtime memory fades and therefore reports back to childhood cannot be completely reliable. Also by being a retrospective approach it overemphasises childhood. Childhood may have a large impact on schizophrenia but what it fails to consider is recent events. For instance, the Diathesis-Stress Model suggests that schizophrenia can occur due to stressful life events that could trigger psychotic symptoms. Perhaps recent events that cause stress are a more important factor rather than childhood. Lastly, the approach focuses on the unconscious which is difficult to falsify
Family Models of Schizophrenia
Family models Early theories: based on observations- not supported well by research Double bind theory (Bateso '56): child has repeated experiences with family members in which receives contradictory messages e.g. 'looks sleepy, go to bed now"-shows concern for welfare of child but hostility and desire to get child out of the way suggested by body language/tone Repeated exposure to contradictory messages ›child resorts to self deceptions communication problems etc. These interactions prevent the development of internally coherent construction of reality, and in the long run, this manifests itself as schizophrenic symptoms (e.g. flattened affect and withdrawal). R.D. Laing schizophrenia reasonable response to an insane world. Research before 1970's = view that dysfunctional families = most common schizophrenia HOWEVER = family interaction only studied after diagnosis of schizophrenia rarely involved proper control groups Hence Recent research = based on expressed emotion; originally by Brown ('72) then lower showed patients with schizophrenia relapse higher than in homes with high expressed emotions. Characteristics of high expressed emotions include: hostility, criticism and over concern. Patients' recall maybe affected by their schizophrenia. Other studies are less supportive. Hall and Levin ('80) analysed data various previous studies no difference families with
Describe and evaluate psychotherapies for schizophrenia
Describe and evaluate psychotherapies for schizophrenia Psychotherapies for schizophrenia include both cognitive therapy and cognitive-behavioural therapy. Cognitive-behavioural therapy focuses on the individual symptoms of schizophrenia such as hallucinations and delusions. The therapy teaches patients coping strategies which are used in response to distressing symptoms. However, cognitive-behavioural therapy and cognitive therapy for schizophrenia is not always effective because the therapy relies on patients being able to recall and communicate effectively which can be a problem if the patient has disorganised speech and thoughts. This is a criticism of psychotherapies because, when compared to drug treatments for schizophrenia, little communication is required as it simply involves the patient taking anti-psychotic drugs to control their symptoms. It has been found that combining these anti-psychotic drugs with cognitive-behavioural therapy is a more effective way of treating schizophrenia as the drugs prevent the patient relapsing while the CBT helps the patient to cope with the symptoms when they are no longer taking drugs. Tarrier conducted a study in 1987 in which he investigated the use of coping strategies during psychotic episodes. Patients with schizophrenia who suffered with severe symptoms following a psychotic episode were interviewed. It was found that one
Discuss Psychological Explanations of Schizophrenia
Psychological explanations of schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder as it often involves a loss of contact with reality and a lack of self insight. Schizophrenia has a large number of clinical characteristics. Some of these are Thought control, delusions of passivity, control and influence, and hallucinatory voices. Other symptoms may include catatonic behaviour, incoherent speech and general negativity about the self. Research states, according to family theories, that schizophrenia is a consequence of maladaptive behaviour and poor communication within the family. Bateson suggested the "double-bind" hypothesis, where children are given conflicting messages from parents who express care, yet at the same time appear critical, which was thought to lead to confusion, self-doubt and withdrawal. Litz et al (1965) also coined the term "marital schism", to explain an abnormal family pattern where conflict between parents was associated with schizophrenia in offspring. However, these theories were based on methodologically flawed studies. One major problem was that families were studied retrospectively, long after the persons mental disorders may have affected the family. Also, these studies did not include control groups and used poorly operationalized definitions of schizophrenia. Also, ethical implications are possible using such explanations of schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia: Introduction and Overview
Running head: THE IMPACT OF SCHIZOPHRENIA Schizophrenia: Introduction and Overview Student ID: 2540 (AP205) Southern Cross International College (Path Education Singapore) Schizophrenia: Introduction and Overview Diseases of the brain and mind have occupied humanity from ancient times. Syndromes recognizable as forms of psychosis appear in the writings of Plato and Hippocrates. Psychosis is a syndrome such as a constellation of symptoms that reflects the distortion of the person's thoughts and perceptions such that there is a loss of boundaries between what is real and what is unreal, between himself or herself and the external world. And Schizophrenia, itself is a form of psychosis, characterized by a multiplicity of symptoms affecting the most fundamental human attributes: cognition, emotion and perception - a mind that is torn asunder. The early age of onset, varying degree of intellectual and psychosocial impairment, possibility of long-term disability and above all associated stigma, often brings to its victims and their family's emotional and financial distress, which makes schizophrenia one of the most severe and devastating mental illness (Thaker and Carpenter, 2001). Symptoms of schizophrenia are generally divided into three categories: positive, negative and disorganized symptoms (Andreasen, 1995 pg. 477 - 81). Positive symptoms refer to the presence of
Psychological explanations of schizophrenia
Psychological explanations of schizophrenia Freud believed that schizophrenia was the result of 2 related processes, regression of the pre ego state, attempts to re-establish control of the ego. If the world of a schizophrenic is harsh e.g. the had cold and uncaring parents they may regress a stage of development before ego was properly formed. And before they develop a realistic awareness of external world, thus leads them to an infantile state. AO2, No empirical evidence to support this, except psychoanalysis Support comes from Reichmann et al, who described schizophrenic mothers as uncaring, dominant, and stated that theses mothers behave rather differently Behavioural explanation Symptoms of schizophrenic due to faulty leaning, as liberman said "due to child receiving little or no social reinforcement in early life due to parental disinterest. Makes child behave in a deviant way and focus on irrelevant environmental cues. E.g. the sound of a word rather than its meaning, thus making a person seem abnormal, as this would affect a person verbal and physical behaviour AO2 Supported by the success of behavioural therapies, used in treating schizophrenia. Support comes from roder who found that social skills training helps schizos gain social skills, as they were able to interact with wider community. Cognitive Suggest a diathesis relationship as further
Biological Approach to Schizophrenia
Biological approach The biological approach suggests that schizophrenia is a disorder caused by genetic abnormalities and increased biochemical levels. Schizophrenia appears to run in families and genetic studies have shown that the risk of developing schizophrenia is proportional to the amount of genes they share. The assumption is that monozygotic (MZ) twins will show a greater concordance rate than dizygotic (DZ) twins because they are genetically similar. Gottesman et al found that MZ twins had a 50% concordance rate whereas DZ twins had a rate of only 9%. These findings support the idea that there is a genetic component to schizophrenia. However, concordance rates are still below 100% which means genetics alone cannot explain schizophrenia, suggesting an alternative component. Although twin studies show a strong genetic link with schizophrenia they do not use the same diagnostic criteria. McGuffin found that different definitions produce different concordance rates and therefore comparisons cannot be made within these studies. Another limitation is that MZ twins are very rare. 1% of the world are schizophrenics and only a small portion of these are MZ twins. This sample is small and we cannot have lots of research to then successfully generalise these findings. One of the main criticism is that both twins live in the same environment and therefore we cannot
Psychological explanations of schizophrenia
Psychological explanations of Schizophrenia (SZ) There are many suggestions that Schizophrenia can be caused by certain psychological factors and stressors. E.g. the more stressful an event the more likely that someone will develop schizophrenic symptoms. Other reasons can be social or cognitive. It is thought that SZ occurs more in people of lower socio-economic stature and this can be explained in 2 ways: low economic status itself has been said to cause high levels of stress due to the poor living conditions and struggle to survive, making those who have the potential to get schizophrenia more likely to show symptoms. It is said that this view is reductionist as it doesn’t take into account the biological factors also even though there is evidence supporting the claims that acute stress can inhibit SZ it is unlikely that Social class and economic stature is the sole cause and it is more likely to be just a contributing factor. It can also be defined with the social drift hypothesis which is where people with SZ can no longer cope with jobs and relationships so drift down the socioeconomic hierarchy. However in 1990 Fox produced a meta-analysis from studies by him and other professionals and found no conclusive evidence for the drift theory. Family relationships are also thought to help develop SZ. Fromm Reichmann (1948) created the term ‘Schizophrenogenic
Psychology therapies of schizophrenia
Token economy Token economy is a form of therapy based on the use of selective positive reinforcement or rewards. This tends to be used with institutionalised patients, who are given tokens, for behaving in appropriate ways. These tokens can later be used to obtain various privileges. Paul and Lentz used a token economy with hospitalised patients with long-term schizophrenia. Patients developed various social and work-related skills, and their symptoms were reduced. There was also a substantial reduction in the number of drugs that were given to the patients. After 4 1/2 years, 98% of patients in the token economy group had been released. Token economies were among the first forms of hospital-based treatments to show clear evidence of reducing the symptoms of schizophrenia. Token economies have proved to be effective with institutionalised patients resistant to other forms of therapy. Dickerson et al. concluded that token economies are especially effective when used in combination with other psychology and/or drug therapy. However, beneficial effects are often greatly reduced when good behaviour is no longer followed by the rewards the patients have become used to receiving. Also token economies focus on only a few of the symptoms associated with schizophrenia. Token economies increase certain kinds of behaviour but do not address cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia. There
