Rosenhan Flashcards
What is psychiatry?
the branch of medicine concerned with the study, diagnosis, and treatment of mental illness
What is labelling?
a distorted way of thinking about things, when a person’s mind convinces them of something that is untrue
What is institutionalisation?
The effects of being kept in an institution e.g., lacking social or communication skills
What is a pseudo patient?
a person who pretends to be ill, especially to gain some benefit
A fake patient
What is depersonalisation?
when people are not treated humanely
What was Rosenhan’s aim?
to test the reliability and validity of diagnosing disorders
What is the IV?
the 12 hospitals
What is the DV?
whether or not the pseudo patients were admitted
What was Rosenhan’s method?
a field experiment / participant observation
What was the setting?
12 psychiatric hospitals in 5 different states = different types - understaffed, modern, old etc
What are the strengths of the method?
high in ecological validity - real staff, patients, and institutions
What are the weaknesses of the method?
lack control over extraneous variables = harder to establish causality
What is the sample?
- 8 pseudo patients
- 5 male and 3 female
- range of jobs e.g., a housewife
- some with psychological background (some without)
What are the strengths of the sample?
no gender bias
What are the weaknesses of the sample?
- culture bias
- small = unrepresentative and ungeneralisable = lack population validity
How did participants gain access to the hospitals?
rang hospitals and arranged an appointment
How did participants appear when they showed up to their appointments?
dishevelled - appear not to take care of themselves
What did the participants tell the hospitals were their symptoms?
they said they heard a voice the same gender as them saying “empty” “hollow” “thud”
How were participants confidentiality protected?
they gave fake names so that any diagnosis would not go on their official medical record
What about the participants was kept authentic?
their life experiences
How did participants behave once they were admitted to the hospital?
immediately behaved normally as they would in everyday life
- interacted with staff and patients
- no longer experienced symptoms
How was information / data gathered?
by the participants in notepads
- initially secretly and eventually in public
What did staff assume about the participants note taking?
assumed it was a symptom and stated participants were “engaging in obsessive writing behaviour”
What were the diagnoses given to the participants?
7/8 = schizophrenia
1/8 = manic depressive (bipolar)
What were the reactions from other patients about the pseudo patients?
many patients detected the pseudo patients saying “you’re not crazy, you’re a journalist or professor checking up on the hospital”
How many patients voiced their concerns?
35/118
What was the range of length of stays?
8-52 (average=19)
What normal behaviours were seen as symptoms of a disorder?
- making notes / observations
- pacing corridors
- queueing early for lunch
What did pseudo patients do with their medication?
flushed it down the toilet
What did pseudo patients notice when flushing their medication?
there was already medication in the toilet = indicates other patients were also flushing their medication
How did pseudo patients get out of the hospital?
had the responsibility of persuading hospital staff that they were sane and should be discharged
What happened to the pseudo patients once they were released?
left with the diagnosis of schizophrenia or manic depression in remission
What does in remission mean?
that it could come back
Why did Rosenhan conduct a second experiment?
to see how well staff could recognise pseudo patients
What did Rosenhan do for the second experiment?
nothing - no pseudo patients were actually sent
What was the procedure for experiment two?
staff used a rating scale to rate new arrivals
What was the key result from experiment two?
41/193 genuine patients were thought to be fake
What is stickiness of labelling?
leads to prejudice, discrimination and distress
What are the ethical issues of Rosenhan?
- deception
- protection from harm
- no right to withdraw
- no informed consent
How can Rosenhan be considered ethical?
informed consent
How can Rosenhan be considered unreliable?
- lack external reliability - different cultural values do not align with USA diagnosis (DSM vs ICD)
How can Rosenhan be considered invalid?
- lack construct validity
- lack population validity
What is a type one error?
a false positive = saying something has something they DO NOT
Which experiment is a type one error?
experiment 1
What is a type two error?
saying someone doesn’t have something they do have
Which experiment is a type two error?
experiment 2
How were Rosenhan’s patients dehumanised?
no toilet doors
general abuse
