AP PSYCHOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -However, the diathesis-stress model was not introduced and used to describe the development of psychopathology until it was applied to explaining schizophrenia in the 1960s by Paul Meehl.

Detailed explanation-2: -As such, Meehl’s model suggests that schizophrenia results from an interaction between individuals’ inherited characteristics and their environmental experiences. Within the context of schizophrenia, the conceptualization of a diathesis-stress interaction was further developed by Bleuler (1963) and Rosenthal (1963).

Detailed explanation-3: -Abstract. The neural diathesis-stress model of schizophrenia proposes that stress, through its effects on cortisol production, acts upon a preexisting vulnerability to trigger and/or worsen the symptoms of schizophrenia.

Detailed explanation-4: -Over fifty years ago David Rosenthal6 described the diathesis-stress theories as “the ones in which genuine meaning attaches to the commonly repeated statement that heredity and environment interact”. However, he criticised the vague formulations for the predispositions and stressors that these theories propose.

Detailed explanation-5: -In this way, the diathesis-stress model explains how psychological disorders might be related to both nature and nurture, and how those two components might interact with one another (Broerman, 2017). The diathesis-stress model is a modern development of a longstanding debate about the causes of mental illness.