Clinical- Studies

Question 1

What is the name and date of the clinical classic study?

Answer 1

Rosenhan et al (1973)

Question 2

What is the three key assumptions of the clinical classic study?

Answer 2

1. The hospital staff were competant
2. The participants would behave in all respects apart from one as they normally did
3. There was never a suggestion that the participants had recieved any previous help with issues of mental health

Question 3

What is the aim of the clinical classic study?

Answer 3

To determine what would happen to eight ‘sane’ people who self-admitted to twelve psychiatric

To test whether they would be identified as ‘pseudo-patients’ or whether they would be diagnosed with a mental illness

Question 4

What is the procedure of study one of the clinical classic study?

Answer 4

There was a total of eight pseudo-patients, three women and five men who all did not wash for five days prior to the experiment starting.

Each called the hospital and said that they were hearing voices saying ‘empty’ ‘hollow’ and ‘thud’

All details that were given were of their own life except their name and occupation.

Once admitted they acted completely normally and did not take any medication.

All 12 of the hospitals varied in status, size and location.

Question 5

What is the results of study one of the clinical classic study?

Answer 5

All 8 pseudo-patients were admitted

All but one were given diagnosis of schizophrenia in remission

Average length of time in hospitl was 19 days

Question 6

What is the conclusion of study one of the clinical classic study?

Answer 6

Doctors are more likely to eir on the side of caution

Patients could see that the pseudo-patients were not ill

Lack of doctor observation. Once given a label, all of your behaviours seem to support the label.

Question 7

What is the procedure of study two of the clinical classic study?

Question 8

What are the results of study two of the clinical classic study?

Answer 8

Out of 193, 41 were judged with high confidence to be pseudo-patients

23 were considered suspect

19 were thought to be pseudo-patients by one psychiatrist and one other staff member

But Rosenhan never sent any patients.

Question 9

What is the conclusion of study two of the clinical classic study?

Answer 9

Once you have been given a label, all your future behaviour seems to support the title.

Doctors were aware of not wanting to over diagnose so didn’t.

Question 10

Describe the results of patient interactions in the clinical classic study.

Answer 10

Only 4% of psychiatrists stopped to talk to the patients. 0.5% of nurses/attendents stopped to talk to the patients.

71% of psychiatrists moved on, head averted

88% of nurses/attendents moved on head averted

Question 11

Evaluate the clinical classic study in terms of generalisability

Answer 11

Good generalisability. 12 different hospitals, 8 patients who were all different in character, gender, range of ages

Question 12

Evaluate the clinical classic study in terms of reliability

Answer 12

Highly reliable, almost 100% as all patients but one were given the same diagnosis.

Question 13

Evaluate the clinical classic study in terms of applications

Answer 13

So much has changed in the way that mental illness is diagnosed and in the way that patients are treated. This may mean that the applications are limited.

Shows us that there are problems associated with labelling in a clinical setting.

Question 14

Evaluate the clinical classic study in terms of ethics

Answer 14

The pseudo-patients were lying about their symptoms which is highly deceptive. Ordinarily, doctors wouldn’t be trying to spot someone who is faking their symptoms.

Question 15

Evaluate the clinical classic study in terms of other points

Answer 15

Rosenhan’s study was too harsh in it’s judgement of the psychiatric profession. It is unfair to any professionals to claim that they should be on the look out for ‘fakers’ constantly. Their job is to treat the symptoms they see not expose fraud.

Question 16

What is the name and date of the schizophrenia contemporary study?

Answer 16

Carlsson et al (1999/2000)

Question 17

Define the following key terms from the schizophrenia contemporary study:

• Glutamate
• Seratonin
• Noradrenaline
• Acetylcholine
• GABA
• Phencyclidine
• Thalamic filter
• Hyperdopaminergia
• Hypoglutamatergia
• Psychotogenic

Answer 17

• Glutamate- most abundent neurotransmitter used by every major excitatory information-transmitting pathway. Accounting in total for well over 90% of the synaptic connections
• Seratonin- regulates mood, appetite, sleep, memory and learning. Associted with a feeling of happiness or decreased anxiety
• Noradrenaline- a stress hormone that controls the body’s fight or flight response, relates to cortisol.
• Acetylcholine- activates motor neurons, involved in breathing, attention, arousal and motivation
• GABA- a neurotransmitter in the CNS that limits nerve transmission, inhibiting nervous activity
• Phencyclidine- can cause hallucinations, erratic behaviour, dellusions and paranoia just like schizophrenia
• Thalamic filter- prevents a load of sensory information
• Hyperdopaminergia- excess dopamine transmission
• Hypoglutamatergia- not enough glutamate transmission
• Psychotogenic- a drug that produces similar symptoms to psychosis.

Question 18

Describe the method and results of the schizophrenia classic study.

Answer 18

A meta analysis reviewing studies in which rats were used to demonstrate that PCP is an antagonist for glutamate.

It binds to the NMDA receptor, impairing the uptake of glutamate and this can lead to psychotogenic symptoms

This shows that it is really hard to tell if psychogenesis is caused by an excess of dopamine or by a deficiency of glutamate

Question 19

Describe the conclusion of the schizophrenia classic study.

Answer 19

We still cannot be sure whether the symptoms of schizophrenia was caused by hyperdopaminergia, hypoglutamaturgia or both. Subpopulations for schizophrenia will probably have different causes.

Question 20

Evaluate the schizophrenia classic study in terms of strength.

Answer 20

As it is a review, Carlsson’s study draws on evidence from a wide range of studies using humans and animals. This meabs that results and conclusions can be generalisable to a wider range of people and unique cases.

The glutamate hypothesis does explain why many scizophrenia sufferers do not respond to drugs which work only on dopamine receptors. Gives us information to see that a scientific change is necessary. This means that doctors could provide drugs that also target glutamate receptors.

Question 21

Evaluate the schizophrenia classic study in terms of weaknesses.

Answer 21

It is only a review. This means that only secondary data can be collected from a range of studies with a range of research methods and levles of control.

Problems with inferences drawn from animals. Animals don’t have an identical brain structure.

Scanning techniques might impair normal functioning. The validity may be reduced as normal functioning isn’t being measured, making it hard to draw conclusions. Ecological validity is low.

Question 22

What is the name and date of the anorexia contemporary study?

Answer 22

Guardia et al (2012)

Question 23

What is the aim of the anorexia contemporary study?

Answer 23

To measure the distortion in body image of people suffering from anorexia nervosa.

To measure wether problems judging body actions occurred in anorexic patients when judging their own body or whether the same mistake is made when judging other people.

Question 24

Who were the participants in the anorexia contemporary study? What participant design was used?

Answer 24

50 female participants, 25 with anorexia nad 25 controls. All students who were matched for age and level of education. As expected, significant BMI difference. Body shape questionnaire score was almost double for those suffering from anorexia.

Question 25

What was the procedure of the anorexia contemporary study?

Answer 25

• 51 different ‘openings’ made to look like doors were projected 4 times each on to a wall in front of the participants. Openings varied between 30 and 80cm.
• Female experimenter 1.6m tall BMI 20.3 and a shoulder width of 38cm. Stood 5.9 meters from the wall
• The participants stood next to the experimenter but could move
• Condition 1- first person perspecive
• Condition 2- third person perspectiive
• If an opening was given a yes response 50% of the time then this sized oening was judged to be a percieved critical appeture.

Question 26

What were the restults of the anorexia contemporary study?

Answer 26

Both a and c indictae a statistically significant difference between scores whereas b indictaes a non significant difference

Question 27

What were the conclusions of the anorexia contemporary study?

Answer 27

• The group with AN showed a significant overestimation of body size in themselves, judging that they would be unable to fit through the door frames taht were considerably bigger than them.
• The same was not found in the judgenmt of whether the researcher could pass through
• The evidence from the control group found that they showed no significant difference in their ability to accurately predict the passibility
• Participants with AN seemed to be making judgeemnts which would have been accurate fro their pre AN size. Failure to update body schema.