Rosenhan Flashcards
What was Rosenhan’s aim?
To see if psychiatrists could tell if someone was mentally ill or not
What were the two things Rosenhan aimed to investigate on why people were diagnosed as being mentally ill?
Behaviour or Environment
How can Rosenhansstudy be placed in a social and historical context?
The anti - psychiatry group suggested it was better to treat schizophrenics in the community. They believed medical model wasn’t any better than demonology and that labelling someone is a way of excluding them. Rosenhan for himself wanted to observe from the inside. He believed the diagnosis of mental illness was useless at best and downright harmful
How can Rosenhans study be placed in an academic context?
Goffman - worked in a mental institute to carry out a pp observation of what its like to be institutionalised. He found that when the patients were labelled insane their behaviour reflected the label. The patients went through mortification as they were depersonalised and stripped of their identities.
How else can Rosenhans study be placed in an academic context?
Pygmalion - reinforced Rosenhans ideas. New teachers of a special group of pupils with a range of IQ’s were told they had unusual potential and that they would bloom. These teachers expectations became a self-fulfilling prophecy, even the weak students showed greater increase in IQ over 8 months than the control group
What was Rosenhans research method?
Participant observation in a natural environment
How many pps were there?
8 pseudopatients - 5 males and 3 females all sane including Rosenhan
How many hospitals were used to get the staff and patients from?
12
What did the pseudopatients have to say to try and get them into a mental hospital?
That they were hearing voices
What were the 3 words pseudopatients were hearing?
Empty
Hollow
Thud
What were the 2 things the pseudopatients lied about?
Their names
The voices
What did the pseudopatients make whilst in the hospital
Notes - in secret at first, but then openly as staff didn’t care
What were the pseudopatients told?
They had to get out themselves
What would the pseudopatients ask whilst in the hospital?
When they are likely to be discharged
In a follow up study Rosenhan told a hospital some pseudopatients were joining them in how many months?
3
Over the next 3 months what did the hospital have to do when patients were admitted?
Rate on a scale of 1-10 how confident they thought that the patients were genuine
How did Rosenhan address some ethical issues?
He kept all pps and hospitals confidential
How many pseudopatients were admitted?
All 8
How many were admitted with Schizophrenia?
7