rosenhan Flashcards
aim
to test the hypothesis that psychiatrists cannot reliably tell the difference between people who are sane and those who are insane.
method
field experiment. independent variable was the made up symptoms of the pseudo patients, and the dependent variable was the psychiatrists’ admission and diagnostic label of the pseudo patient. The study also involved participant observation, since, once admitted, the pseudo-patients kept written records of how the ward as a whole operated, as well as how they personally were treated.
study 1
eight sane people from various backgrounds attempting to gain admission to 12 different hospitals, in five different states in the USA. There were three women and five men. pseudo-patients telephoned the hospital for an appointment, and arrived at the admissions office complaining that they had been hearing voices. They said the voice, which was unfamiliar and the same sex as themselves, was often unclear but it said ‘empty’, ‘hollow’, ‘thud’. These symptoms were partly chosen because they were similar to existential symptoms. After they had been admitted to the psychiatric ward, the pseudo patients stopped showing any symptoms of abnormality. However, they were nervous, possibly because of fear of being exposure as a fraud, and the novelty of the situation.
Theytook part in ward activities, speaking to patients and staff as they might ordinarily. When asked how they were feeling by staff they were fine and no longer experienced symptoms. they had to get out on their own devices.
They kept notes on observations.
study 2
Staff were informed in one psychiatric hospital of the results of the first study and were told that at some time during the next 3 months, 1 or more psuedopatients would try to be admitted to the hospital. Each member of staff were asked to rate all patients who sought admission using a 10-point rating scale where 1 and 2 reflected high confidence that the patient was a pseudopatient.
Results: study 1
all patients were admitted and, except 1, diagnosed with schizophrenia. Each eventually discharged with a diagnosis of schizophrenia in remission. Length of hospitalisation varied from 7-52 days, with an average of 19 days. Average daily contact with medical staff ranged from 3.9-25.1 minutes, mean of 6.8%.
Failure to detect sanity cannot be due to the quality of hospitals, the time available to observe them, or their behaviour. It may be because a doctor is more inclined to call a healthy person sick than calling a sick person healthy.
Results: study 2
193 patients were admitted for treatment. None of them were psuedopatients but 41 patients were judged with high confidence to be psuedopatients by atleast 1 member of staff; 23 were suspected by atleast one psychiatrist; and 19 were suspected by a psychiatrist and one other staff member. They were calling a sick person healthy presumably because they were trying to avoid calling a healthy person sick.
evaluation
Observations
Staff unaware they were being observed, so were most of the patients- what was being see was usual behavior so ecological validity
Different hospitals are run in different ways which makes replication in another hospital difficult- naturalistic studies can’t have controlled variables, reduced reliability
Usefulness
Can be used to psychiatric care and diagnosis as the study highlighted the problems of they system
Might be unethical to gain results- deception, right for pseudopatients to withdraw voluntarily, and protection from physical and psychological harm- but all necessary to achieve valid results
