Langer and Rodin Flashcards
What did Langer and Rodin aim to do?
- see whether increased responsibility meant more happiness for a group of nursing home patients
- also wanted to test increased responsibility on factors that hadn’t already been tested
How can Langer and Rodin’s study be placed in a wider context?
“control refers to the extent to which an individual feels able to direct or regulate his/her own behaviour” Sources of control can either be internal or external. People who have higher internal locus - less stress - less likely to become ill. As the population gets older it is important that the OAP’s continue to make choices, so they are less likely to become ill
How else can Langer & Rodin’s study be placed in a wider context?
Seligman - lack of control leads to depression, he called it learned helplessness. L&R were looking to see if increased choice/responsibility improved wellbeing
How can Langer & Rodin’s study be placed into an academic context?
Ferrare - observed an old person choosing where they lived. A group of 17 OAP’s moved to a old people’s home and after 4 weeks, 4 had died and after 10 weeks a further 8 had died (deaths were unexpected). This suggests a lack of choice affects wellbeing
What was Langer & Rodin’s research method?
Field experiment in a high quality nursing home in the USA (connecticut)
What was Langer & Rodin’s sample?
91 OAP’s
-aged 65-90 (not in this age were discounted)
How many groups were there from the 2 floors?
2
How many males were there in the RIG group on the 4th floor?
8
How many females were there in the RIG group on the 4th floor?
39
How many males were there in the CG group on the 2nd floor?
9
How many females were there in the CG group on the 2nd floor?
35
What were pps given?
A questionnaire
What did the questionnaire ask them to do?
Rate how happy they are on a scale of 0-8
What did the research assistant rate?
Their alertness
What was given to the groups a week later by the 33 y/o male boss of the home?
Announcements
What were the RIG group told?
You’re responsible for yourselves
- allowed to make choices e.g. movie night
- could look after a plant too
What were the CG group told?
Staff are responsible for their happiness
- staff made decisions for them e.g. movie night
- staff looked after plant
After 3 days what were the RIG group told?
We want you to be happy, make all the decisions you used to make
After 3 days what were the CG told?
We want you to be happy
3 weeks later what did 2 nurses fill in?
A second questionnaire
What was the 2nd questionnaire assessing?
The pps across a 9,10 point scale including alertness, active participation and wellbeing
What other sort of measures were there?
Behavioural - if went to movie night did they enter into the number of jelly beans competition
How did Langer & Rodin address some ethical issues?
Ensuring both groups got high quality care
What did Langer & Rodin find on the 1st questionnaire?
No significant differences between the RIG and CG on happiness
What % of the RIG group felt happier when they could make choices themselves?
48%
What % of the CG group felt happier?
25%
What did Langer & Rodin find about the RIG group?
They spent less time doing passive things and more time visiting other patients, visiting other people outside the home and more time talking to staff
Which group attended movie night the most?
RIG - no difference 1 month earlier though
How many pps of the RIG group took part in the jelly bean guessing competition?
10
How many pps in the CG group took part in the jelly bean guessing competition?
1
The nurses judged what % of the RIG group had improved?
93%
The nurses judged what % of the CG group had improved?
21%
What % of the pps were unable to understand what we meant by control and so this measure was not used as a comparison?
20%
What were the 2 things Langer and Rodin concluded?
- Giving people more responsibility means they’re happier and have a better mental and phsical health (93% improvement)
- Procedures should be put in place to remove any factors in institutions that reduce real or perceived responsibility
Was reliability a strength for Langer and Rodin?
Yes - could be repeated as it was controlled and used the same rating scales, also nurses didn’t know the hypothesis (double blind)
Was validity a strength for Langer and Rodin?
No - findings only apply to OAP’s in a home, also may not apply to other countries. Also care home was one of the best
Was the sample strong?
Yes - 91 pps is large no. However all pps were from 1 nursing home in 1 USA town, also some gender bias
What data was collected?
Quantitative - enables comparisons
However little qualitative data was collected
Was ethics a problem for Langer and Rodin?
Partially - although all pps received good care, pps in the control group weren’t protected from harm. This breaks BPS guidelines
Who did Langer and Rodin support and how?
Ferrare - both suggested choice affects wellbeing. It could be said they improved upon the work because they used more pps
Whose evidence supports Langer and Rodin and how?
Kunzmann et al - used data from the Berlin Ageing Study. They found positive relationship between perceived control and emotional wellbeing, this evidence is similar because control was linked to emotional wellbeing and in L&R’s improvement was seen in the RIG group
Whose evidence challenges Langer and Rodin and how?
Friedman - suggests lack of choice isn’t only factor. Personality closely related to wellbeing, type A more stressed more heart attacks, type B more laid back less heart attacks live longer. This challenges L&R because it suggests illness and unhappiness is caused by personality type. However could the 2 studies be not comparable as Friedman used male pps 35-59 and L&R used male and female 65-90
