rosenhan Flashcards
what is the aim?
rosenhan wanted to address the issue about whether sanity and insanity exist and how we can tell the difference between the two.
- to see if the most important characteristics that lead to diagnosis reside in the patients themselves or in the environments and contexts in which the observers find them
how many ppts?
8 sane people who attempted to gain admission to 12 different hospitals in 5 different states in US.
what was the procedure?
rosenhan used a range of hospitals e.g. old and new, reseach-oriented, well-staffed or poorly staffed, private or federal…
- they telephoned for an appointment and arrived at addmissions complaining that they had been hearing voices which was UNFAMILIAR and the SAME SEX and said hollow, empty and thud.
- these symptoms were chosen because they simulated an existential crisis which could rise from concerns about meaningless lifes.
what happened after the patients were admitted?
they gave false names and jobs but kept everything else the same.
- after admission, the psuedopatients stopping simulating any symptoms except nervousness, fear of exposure and reaction to novelty
- they wrote notes on the staff and patients and each patient had to get out themselves by convincing staff they were fine.
how long were the ppts in there for?
they remained in hospital for 7 to 52 days (on average 19 days) and 7 were released with a diagnosis of SZ in remission and 1 with depression
what were the results?
while the pseudopatients were in the psychiatric hospitals, their normal behaviours were overlooked or misinterpreted.
- the note writing was seen as an aspect of their pathological behaviour
- a psychiatrist pointed to a group of patients waiting outside the cafeteria half an hour before lunchtime which suggested that such behaviour was characteristic of an oral-acquisitive syndrome but more likley is that the patients had little to do
what was rosenhan’s conclusion?
in psychiatric hospitals it is clear we cannot distinguish the sane from the insane.
- although he and the other pseudopatients had very negative experiences in the psychiatric hospitals
what is a weakness?
the only permission gained was for rosenhans own admission and even then it was only with the hospital administrator and the chief psychologist in one insitution
- none of the other hospitals were aware.
it could be argued that their actions affected the amount of attention given to those who were genuinely ill but the testimonies of the pseudopatients suggest this was not true as the staff had very limited contact with patients (7 minutes per day)
what is a strength?
the sample used is generalisable in that there was a variety of type of institution, spread over a wide geographical area so the findings were not limited to one type
- however it was only tested in one culture so can only tell us about america in the 70s.
what is the reliability?
Slater attemted to replicate rosenhan’s findings and found that when she presented herself at nine emergency rooms reporting hearing a voice saying thud she was diagnosed with depression with psychosis and prescribed antipsychotic and antidepressent medication.
what is the competing argument of the reliability?
spitzer et al sent a detailed vignette based on slater’s account of her methodology to 431 psychologists who were asked to make a diagnosis
73 responded and 86% of these categorically ruled out the diagnosis slater claims she was given
