Li Repac 1980 Flashcards
aim
To test the role of stereotyping in diagnosis,
sample
There were ten patients used in the study - 5 white and 5 Chinese - all of whom had been diagnosed with mental illness. The subjects were controlled for age, socioeconomic status, and level of pathology. Three of the Chinese were diagnosed with schizophrenia, 1 neurotic, and 1 reactive depressive. Of the white patients, 2 were diagnosed as schizophrenic, one as neurotic, one as character disorder, and one as reactive depressive. All of the Chinese patients were born either in China or Hong Kong.
procedure
Li Repac wanted to compare the diagnoses of both white and Chinese-American therapists of both white and Chinese male subjects.
The researcher carried out semi-structured interviews with each of the patients. These interviews were videotaped. They were asked questions like “How have you been feeling lately?” and “How do you spend a typical day?”
The clinicians were 5 white and 5 Chinese-American males, all recruited through personal contact with the researcher. The five white raters reported no previous contact with Asian patients.
Each “rater” (the clinicians) was first asked to describe an ideal, functioning individual using a 112-item test. There was no significant difference in the scores, showing that their training had led to a similar understanding of what constituted normality.
Then they were randomly assigned videos to rate for normality. Each rater would rate 4 videos - 2 of white patients and 2 of Chinese patients. They were asked to fill in an inventory to describe both personal traits and signs of pathology.
results
When looking at personal traits, the Whites tended to see signs of lower self-esteem in the Chinese patients. The Chinese tended to see the Whites as being more aggressive.
