Rosenhan Flashcards
What year was the study
1973
What’s the name of the study
Being sane in insane places
What’s the aim
To see whether a group of sane people presenting as insane would be diagnosed by staff at psychiatric hospitals
What’s the main points of the method
-Participant observation
-Pseudo patients fake illness
-Record results and experience(s)
What’s the basic procedure
Pseudo patients called for an appointment at the hospitals and when they went they answered all questions the same including giving a list of words they supposedley heard such as “empty” “hollow” “thud” which weren’t known, common words for people with mental illnesses such as Schitzophrenia to hear and yet all but one was diagnosed with it. The rest of the questions were answered truthfully apart from their names and if they worked in mental health fields, they lied.
What’s the sample
patients and staff at 12 different ‘loonybins’ in 5 different states in America’s early 60’s. 8 pseudo-patients pretended to be suffereing from a mental disorder and present themselves for admission. These were ‘normal’ people who didn’t suffer with any mental issues. They were 3 women and 5 men all of various ages and jobs.
What was the outline of the results
All apart from 1 psuedo-ateint were diagnosed with schitzophrenia and admitted into the hospitals. During this time, no matter how sane they acted, they were never released and it was thought that the more sane they acted the more insane they were as it was seen as abnormal behaviour.
What happened in the 2nd study
A group of staff were told pseudo-atients would be trying to get admitted and they were to be tested on whether they could spot them amongst real patietns trying to get admitted. No pseudo-patients were actually going to be prsented during the 3 months. The staff were then told to rate how likely the patients were to be pseudo-patients on a scale from 1-10.
What were the results for the 2nd study
1 staff membered judged 41 patients to be fake
another judged 23
and 2 judged 19.
What was the sample for the 2nd study
the staff of 1 hospital who were told about the 1st study and found it hard to believe.
