Mental health topic 1 = Rosenhan + application Flashcards
Aim
To investigate if staff in mental hospitals in the US in 70s could tell the sane from the insane
To investigate instances of dehumanisation in mental disorders
Outline of experiment 1
8 researchers admit themselves to different mental hospitals on basis of hearing voices
Once inside, stop showing symptoms, take notes of the ward staff and patients
Sample of experiment 1
12 different mental hospitals
What did the participants in experiment 1 say were their symproms?
A voice in their head of the same sex saying:
‘empty’
Were all the fake patients in experiment 1 admitted?
Yes
What were the fake patients admitted with?
Paranoid schizophrenia
Average stay in the mental hospital for each fake patient
19 days
Were the staff able to detect the patients were sane ?
No all were discharged with a diagnosis of schizophrenia in remission
Normal behaviours were misinterpreted as part of their disorder
How did staff misinterpret normal behaviours of pseudopatients?
Note taking + queueing up early = ‘oral acquisitive’ (obsessive)
Mistreatment of patients found out
Verbal abuse + brutality by a staff orderlie
Staff spent very little time outside ward office
Patients spent very little time with psychologists/psychiatrist
What experiment was completed in study 1?
Pseudopatient Approach a staff member and ask a request
Record how staff responded
Compare to Uni medical centre and Stanford Uni
Request made in experiment in study 1
‘Pardon me could you tell me when i will be presented at the staff meeting?’
Control for the experiment in study 1
Responses to a sane individual: young female asks staff at Stanford Uni ‘How does one apply for admissison to the college
Repeat at Uni medical centre: Im looking for a psychiatrist
Results for experiment 1
88% of nurses and attendants moved on with head adverted
Study 2
A teaching and research hospital + Rosenhan agreed to take part in a study where over 3 months, pseudopatients would be admitted
Asked to rate on a 10 point scale how likely it was that a patient was fake
Did Rosenhan send any fake patients in study 2?
No, but hospital was under the pretense at least one patient admitted had to be fake
Why did Rosenhan not send any fake patients in study 2?
So staff just rated how likely their regular intake was to be sane
How many patients were judged in experiment 2?
193
Conclusions: validity of diagnoses
Hospitals are not good at making valid diagnoses of insanity (study 2) or sanity (study 1)
Because all patients in study 1 werent detected as sane but with schziophrenia in remission
Conclusions: reliability of diagnoses
Hospitals are not good at making reliable diagnoses of insanity because at 12 of the hospitals, 1 patient was diagnosed as manic depressive psychosis instead of paranoid schizophrenia
Despite same set of symptoms
Conclusions: diagnostic labels
Hospitals viewed all (normal) behaviour of patients as a result of disorder so may indicate how labels for certain symptoms cause stigma
Conclusions: treatments of patients
Patients treated with profound disrespect: subject to brutality, 88% of nurse staff moved head away from patients etc, called derogatory names
