Explain and provide evidence for one psychological explanation of schizophrenia in relation to the family environment.

Arguably one of the most dominant psychological explanations of schizophrenia, in relation to the family environment, is the double-bind theory (Bateson et al, 1956). This is when children are consistently provided with two or more conflicting messages, where one invalidates the other in a particular way. A good example is if a mother said to a child: 'I love you' followed by the use of paralinguistic features associated with disgust, such as an angry face or crossed arms. Simultaneously communicating two conflicting messages at the same time makes the world extremely confusing for children, which may eventually manifest during adulthood into a plethora of positive symptoms associated with schizophrenia, including delusions.
Evidence of the consequences of parents using double-binds comes from Wynne and Singer's (1963) employment of the Rorschach-Inkblot test, an ambiguous image which can be interpreted in any way an individual chooses to see it, with no right or wrong answer being assigned to it. They compared groups of schizophrenic children with control groups, and observed how the parents communicate with them. It was clear that parents who had schizophrenic children were more likely to use a communicative style that was indicative of the double-bind theory, using conflicting messages and also prohibiting the use of turn-taking. Although it is imperative to take a diathesis-stress approach when discussing the development of schizophrenia, it is reasonable to suggest that the family environment, the use of conflicting language in particular, has an influence on schizophrenic symptomology.