Psychological Explanations
FAMILY DYSFUNCTION
Factors within the family involved with the development of schizophrenia in adulthood:
1. High levels of interpersonal conflict
2. Poor communication, or difficulty in communication
3. Being overly critical and controlling of children
DOUBLE BIND THEORY - BATESON ET AL
Children who frequently receive contradictory messages from their parents are more likely to develop
schizophrenia. For example parents who say they care whilst appearing critical.
They did not believe that schizophrenia was a disease but that it was a result of social pressures from
life.
Prolonged exposure to these interactions led to symptoms like ‘flattened affect’ due to blocking off all
emotions so that they do not feel hurt by what happened to them
SCHIZOPHRENOGENIC MOTHER
A mother who is domineering, insensitive, controlling, overprotective as well as rejective and lacking
emotional warmth
This type of mother may micromanage their children and refuses to acknowledge their independence
which then leads to lines of faulty communication between her and her child.
EXPRESSED EMOTION THEORY
Expressed emotion is a family communication style that involves criticism, hostility and emotional
over-involvement. The researchers concluded that this is more important in maintaining schizophrenia
rather than causing it.
Patients that returned to a household with high expressed emotion were more likely to relapse than
patients returned to a low expressed emotion household.
EVALUATIONS OF FAMILY DYSFUNCTION
➔ Practical applications - family therapy reduced social conflicts between parents and their
children which reduced expressed emotion and thus relapse rates.
➔ Reductionism - it is reductionist to suggest that a complex disorder like schizophrenia can be
explained in purely family dysfunction terms.
➔ Issues with validity - not all individuals in families with dysfunctional communication styles will
develop schizophrenia
COGNITIVE THEORIES
COGNITIVE DEFICITS
There is evidence that people diagnosed as schizophrenic have difficulties in processing various
types of information, for example visual and auditory information, and their attention skills may be
deficient.
Schizophrenics may have difficulties in using other peoples actions as cues for understanding what
they might be thinking.
Cognitive deficits may be linked with low expressed emotion, disorganised speech and delusions.
COGNITIVE BIASES
Refers to selective attention
The ideas of cognitive biases has been used to explain typical schizophrenic symptoms
Delusions - associated with specific biases in reasoning about and explaining social situations so
schizophrenics may believe someone if trying to hurt them
FRITH
Schizophrenics fail to monitor their own thoughts correctly, misattributing them to the outside world.
When a person hears voices, it is actually their own inner speech being misinterpreted; however they
may believe that someone or something in the external world is communicating with them even
though it is their own inner voice
EVALUATIONS -
FAMILY DYSFUNCTION
Factors within the family involved with the development of schizophrenia in adulthood:
1. High levels of interpersonal conflict
2. Poor communication, or difficulty in communication
3. Being overly critical and controlling of children
DOUBLE BIND THEORY - BATESON ET AL
Children who frequently receive contradictory messages from their parents are more likely to develop
schizophrenia. For example parents who say they care whilst appearing critical.
They did not believe that schizophrenia was a disease but that it was a result of social pressures from
life.
Prolonged exposure to these interactions led to symptoms like ‘flattened affect’ due to blocking off all
emotions so that they do not feel hurt by what happened to them
SCHIZOPHRENOGENIC MOTHER
A mother who is domineering, insensitive, controlling, overprotective as well as rejective and lacking
emotional warmth
This type of mother may micromanage their children and refuses to acknowledge their independence
which then leads to lines of faulty communication between her and her child.
EXPRESSED EMOTION THEORY
Expressed emotion is a family communication style that involves criticism, hostility and emotional
over-involvement. The researchers concluded that this is more important in maintaining schizophrenia
rather than causing it.
Patients that returned to a household with high expressed emotion were more likely to relapse than
patients returned to a low expressed emotion household.
EVALUATIONS OF FAMILY DYSFUNCTION
➔ Practical applications - family therapy reduced social conflicts between parents and their
children which reduced expressed emotion and thus relapse rates.
➔ Reductionism - it is reductionist to suggest that a complex disorder like schizophrenia can be
explained in purely family dysfunction terms.
➔ Issues with validity - not all individuals in families with dysfunctional communication styles will
develop schizophrenia
COGNITIVE THEORIES
COGNITIVE DEFICITS
There is evidence that people diagnosed as schizophrenic have difficulties in processing various
types of information, for example visual and auditory information, and their attention skills may be
deficient.
Schizophrenics may have difficulties in using other peoples actions as cues for understanding what
they might be thinking.
Cognitive deficits may be linked with low expressed emotion, disorganised speech and delusions.
COGNITIVE BIASES
Refers to selective attention
The ideas of cognitive biases has been used to explain typical schizophrenic symptoms
Delusions - associated with specific biases in reasoning about and explaining social situations so
schizophrenics may believe someone if trying to hurt them
FRITH
Schizophrenics fail to monitor their own thoughts correctly, misattributing them to the outside world.
When a person hears voices, it is actually their own inner speech being misinterpreted; however they
may believe that someone or something in the external world is communicating with them even
though it is their own inner voice
EVALUATIONS -
