Psychological explanations for schizophrenia(A03)-Topic 3

TOPIC 3 - Psychological explanations for schizophrenia

STRENGTH(1)

One strength is evidence linking family dysfunction to schizophrenia. For example, a review by Read et al reported that adults with schizophrenia are disproportionately likely to have insecure attachment. Moreover, 69% of women and 59% of men with schizophrenia have a history of physical or sexual abuse. This strongly suggests that family dysfunction does make people more vulnerable to schizophrenia. Therefore, recognising the role of family dysfunction has practical value, as it supports the development of family-based therapies that aim to reduce relapse rates and improve patient outcomes.

LIMITATION(1)

One limitation is the poor evidence base for any of the explanations. For example, there is almost no evidence to support the importance of traditional family-based theories such as the schizophrenogenic mother and double bind. Both theories are based on clinical observation of patients and informal assessment of the personality of the mothers of patients. This means that, family explanations have not been able to explain the link between childhood trauma and schizophrenia. Therefore, the lack of empirical support reduces the validity and scientific credibility of family-based explanations for schizophrenia which means we cannot confidently draw conclusions from this explanation and make use of it when referring to schizophrenia.

STRENGTH(2)

Another strength is evidence for dysfunctional thought processing. For example, Stirling et al compared performance on a range of cognitive tasks in people with and without schizophrenia. As predicted, by central control theory, people with schizophrenia took over twice as lone on average to name font-colours. This supports the view that cognitive processes of people with schizophrenia are impaired. Therefore, consistent findings across cognitive studies strengthen the reliability of the cognitive explanation, suggesting that disordered information processing is a genuine characteristic of schizophrenia.

LIMITATION(2)

One limitation of the cognitive explanation of schizophrenia is that it only provides a proximal account of symptoms. Cognitive theories focus on faulty information processing, such as poor central control, which can lead to disorganised thinking and hallucinations. This shows that cognitive explanations describe what is happening in the moment to produce symptoms (proximal causes). However, they do not address the distal causes — the underlying factors that lead to these cognitive deficits, such as genetic vulnerability or family dysfunction — meaning they cannot fully explain why schizophrenia develops. Therefore, cognitive explanations have limited validity as a complete account of schizophrenia, highlighting the need for interactionist approaches that consider both proximal and distal factors.