classic study: rosenhan 1973 Flashcards
what was the name of Rosenhan’s study?
being sane in insane places
state the 2 aims of the study
- identify if 8 sane people who gained admission to 12 different hospitals would be found out as sane
- identify the experience of being in an institution was like and what it feels like to be viewed as insane
describe the sample of study 1
- 8 pseudopatients
- male and female
- occupations: painter, pediatrician, psychiatrist, 3 psychologists, housewife , psychology graduate student
- psych backgrounds alleged alternate occupations to avoid special treatment from staff
describe the hospitals in the sample of study 1
- 12
- 5 different states on east and west coast
- some old, some new
- some research orientated
- some understaffed
- 1 private
describe the procedure in study 1
- claimed to hear an unfamiliar, same sex voice saying ‘empty, hollow, thud’
- life histories / previous experiences remained true
- ceased all symptoms upon admission and told staff they were ‘fine’
- brief period of anxiety upon admission
- made notes about staff/patients, started privately but then left in public places eg day room
- all but 1 desired to be discharged immediately
- 7-52 days with 19 days avrg
what 3 characteristics did nursing reports indicate that pseudopatients had?
- friendly
- co operative
- exhibited no abnormal indications
what diagnosis were they discharged with?
schizophrenia in remission
who suspected the sanity of the pseudopatients?
- other patients
- ‘you’re not crazy, you’re a journalist or professor checking up on the hospital’
describe the findings
- nurse reports
- patients detected sanity
- type 1 false positive which errs on side of caution, identifying a healthy person as insane
- 35/118 real patients voted suspicions
- nurses spent 11.3% of time outside cage
- experienced depersonalisation = physical abuse in front of them, no privacy, physical exam in public room, no eye contact, over reliance on medication
how much of the medication was swallowed by pseudopatients?
2/2100
state the aim of study 2
see if tendency toward diagnosing the sane could be reversed
describe the sample of study 2
research teaching hospital who had heard of findings of study 1 and doubted an error would occur for them
describe the procedure of study 2
- staff informed that during following 3 months, 1 or more pseudopatients would attempt to be admitted
- staff rated each patient on 10 point scale with 1 being high confidence that they were a pseudopatient
- judgements obtained on 193 patients
describe the results of study 2
- 41 alleged with high confidence
- 23 considered by 1 psychiatrist
- 19 suspected by 1 psychiatrist and 1 other staff member
- no genuine pseudopatient was presented
- tendency to designate sane people as insane can be reversed when stakes are high
- diagnostic process is unreliable
what did Asch say about central personality colouring formation of impressions? how does this link to the study?
- powerful traits colour meaning of other information to form an impression of a given personality
- once a person is designated abnormal, other behaviours are tainted by this label
- pseudopatients normal behaviour is overlooked entirely due to the diagnosis
