Revision

Rules for using in essays:

• Define terms

• Include other side of debate

• Specific to what you are evaluating

Reductionism is the belief that human behaviour can be explained by breaking it down into simpler component parts

Levels of explanation

• Biological explanations

  • Dopamine hypothesis: Schizophrenia is explained by an imbalance in dopamine activity. Hyperactivity of dopamine in the mesolimbic pathway is associated with positive symptoms, such as hallucinations and delusions, while hypofunction in the mesocortical pathway may contribute to negative symptoms, like flat affect and avolition.

• Psychological explanations

  • Family Dysfunction

    • Expressed Emotion (EE): High levels of expressed emotion in family environments, characterized by criticism, hostility, and emotional over-involvement, have been linked to the onset and relapse of schizophrenia. Individuals in high-EE households are more likely to experience stress, which can trigger symptoms, especially in those with a genetic predisposition.

    • Double Bind Theory: Gregory Bateson proposed that contradictory messages from caregivers (e.g., verbal affection but hostile non-verbal cues) in childhood may lead to confusion and difficulty in developing a coherent sense of reality, increasing vulnerability to schizophrenia

• Social and cultural explanations

  • Social Stress and Urbanicity

    • Urban environments: Research has shown that individuals living in urban areas have a higher risk of developing schizophrenia compared to those in rural areas. This is attributed to increased social stressors such as poverty, overcrowding, and exposure to crime, which can act as triggers for the disorder in vulnerable individuals.

    • Social defeat hypothesis: Repeated experiences of social exclusion or marginalisation (e.g., discrimination or unemployment) may increase the likelihood of schizophrenia by causing chronic stress and dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis.

Biological reductionism

Includes neurochemical, physiological, evolutionary and genetic influences on behaviour

Describe and evaluate the family dysfunction explanation of gender.

The family dysfunction theory could be considered as somewhat reductionist. as it is at the psychological level of explanation. The theory doesn’t address any