The psychological approaches to schizophrenia. Includes: psychodynamic, behavioural and cognitive. Notes geared towards AQA A2 Psychology A Specification.

3. He proposed schizophrenia was a result of two processes:
1. Regression to a pro-ego state
2. Attempting to re-establish ego control
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He believed schizophrenia developed as a result of the following
process:
1. Parents are cold/uncaring towards their child
2. This causes the child to regress back into an infantile state where
the ego is not yet fully developed
3. Symptoms include: delusions of grandeur and auditory
hallucinations are seen as an individual’s attempt to re-establish
ego control

4. Fromm-Reichmann | 1948 :
Found over protective, rejecting, dominant and moralistic mothers
can contribute to children developing schizophrenia. This support’s
Freud’s theory in that he claims the disorder stems from childhood.
Bateson et al | 1956 :
Found children who get mixed-messages from their parents are more
likely to develop schizophrenia. For example, if a mother was to tell
her child she loved them but looked away in disgust when the child
did something wrong, the child would see this as a mixed-message.
He also found prolonged exposure disrupts a child’s internally
coherent construction of reality (perception of reality).

5. Oltmanns et al | 1991 :
Found parents acted differently once their child had been
labelled as schizophrenic, not prior to, therefore it is not
parental influence that causes the onset of the disorder.
Similar finding to Rosenhan’s 1973 pseudo-patients study
where nurses reacted differently to patients once they had
been labelled.

6. Speculative: it is impossible to empirically test concepts
such as the ID, ego and superego.
Unfalsifiable: there is validity in the assumption that
schizophrenics suffer ‘inner turmoil’, this cannot be
proven.
Lack of evidence: subsequent psychoanalysts have
claimed, like Freud, that disordered family patterns are
the cause of schizophrenia - e.g. family interactions and
patterns of communication were linked to the cause of
schizophrenia. ‘Schizophrenogenic families’ was used to
described these dysfunctional families.

7.  Ethical issues: treatment and sometimes diagnosis of the disorder
requires the revisiting of repressed memories, causing the individual
to suffer psychological distress.
 Low temporal validity: the theory was developed and studied during
the Victorian era and it’s argued it can no longer be valid due to
changes in society and psychological approaches in the modern day.
 Low population validity: studies that support this approach are case
studies, meaning findings and implications can’t accurately
generalise a population due to individual differences between
individuals.

8. Unscientific: there can never be scientific evidence to
support this theory as is relies on an individual’s
memories and how accurate their recall is, diagnosis and
treatments may be incorrect due to human memory being
imperfect.

10. The behavioural approach suggests that all
behaviour, including abnormal, is learned.

11. The proposed process of the development of schizophrenia:
1. Punishment: causes the child to withdraw (through fear of further
punishment)
2. Child becomes viewed and labelled as ‘odd’
3. Child is given attention (positive reinforcement) which encourages
them to remain withdrawn
4. Child then conforms to the ‘odd’ label
5. Child shows more exaggerated behaviours (to gain attention)
6. Schizophrenia develops

12. This theory of schizophrenia is supported by Scheff’s
Labelling Theory-that the symptoms of schizophrenia are
viewed as deviant and so the label of schizophrenia is
applied. Once the label is applied it becomes a self-fulfilling
prophecy which promotes the development of other
schizophrenic symptoms.

13. Paul and Lentz | 1977 :
Were successful is using token economy (method based on
operant conditioning) to reduce bizarre motor behaviours in
chronic psychiatric patients. This was a longitudinal study
(6 years) and 84 patients were assessed using structured
interviews and behavioural observation.

14.  Reductionist: ignores any role biological factors could play in the
onset of schizophrenia as a mental disorder. Argues the disorder is
purely nurture rather than nature.

16. The cognitive approach is concerned with faulty thinking
and faulty thought process.
More specifically, most people are able to focus selectively
(e.g. ignore one stimulus and pay attention to another). It is
suggested that people with schizophrenia cannot filter
information in this way – they let in too much irrelevant
information,

17. A common characteristic of schizophrenia is the inability to think
clearly.
In ‘normal’ brains, it’s thought that there are mechanisms that filter
and process the incoming stimuli. In ‘schizophrenic’ brains, these
filters are somehow defective. They are inundated by external stimuli
which they are unable to interpret – therefore they experience the
world differently.
LABORATORY TASKS
There is evidence to show that schizophrenia sufferers are poor at
laboratory tasks which require them to pay attention to some stimuli
but ignore others. This suggests that schizophrenics do struggle to
filter information like other people – supporting the cognitive
explanation.

18. Schizophrenia may have a relatively unique set of cognitive
impairments of which working memory may be the main
deficit. Prefrontal and cortical regions in the brain are
thought to play a crucial role in working memory.

19. Cognitive theory furthering understanding: it has only been
recognised that cognitive functioning is an important factor
in determining patient outcome - cognitive impairment is
now a strong predictor of outcome. Research in this area
has therefore been beneficial in furthering our
understanding of this complex disorder.

20. Cognitive theory alone doesn’t explain the disorder: it
doesn’t explain the cause - e.g. what leads to the cognitive
dysfunction. In order to explain the origins, the explanation
needs to be paired with the biological approach. The
cognitive may however help us explain the origins of some
symptoms - e.g. hallucinations and delusions.