Rosenhan: Classic Study

Question 1

What was the aim of Rosenhan study

Answer 1

To determine the validity of labelling an individuals sanity and whether or not it’s reliable
To see if medical professionals could spot the difference between a sane and insane person

Question 2

Describe the pseudopatients in the experiment

Answer 2

8 pseudopatients 3 women and 5 men. One housewife, painter, psychiatrist ect

Question 3

What did the pseudopatients do to gain access

Answer 3

Faked hearing voices in the interview saying ‘thud’ ‘hollow’ and ‘empty’all personal info was kept the same except for their job if it linked to psychology

Question 4

What did the pseudo patients do once they had been admitted

Answer 4

Ceased hearing voices and acted normal they took notes on what was going on and hid any medication given

Question 5

How were the pesudopatients treated and what did they witness?

Answer 5

They saw stuff abuse patients physically and mentally
staff discussed patients openly in front of other patients
There was no privacy and they were watched on the toilet and in the shower
A nurse adjusted there bra in front of the patients

Question 6

Did the pseudo patients get caught?

Answer 6

No, they did not. However the other patients noticed that they were not insane and told them you’re not insane you’re a journalist 35 out of 118 patients noticed they were not real patients with real illnesses

Question 7

What was the procedure for the follow-up study?

Answer 7

During a three month period one or more pseudo patients would attempt to gain admission to an institution and the staff were to write them on a 10 point scale on the likelihood that they were an impostor.

Question 8

What was the result of the follow-up study?

Answer 8

Judgements were obtained on 193 patients. 41 were considered imposters and 42 considered suspect in reality RosenHan had sent no pseudo patients at all.

Question 9

What are the conclusions for rosenhan ?

Answer 9

Patients were misdiagnosed to be sane when they were actually insane which means the first reason why patients are misdiagnosed ‘ the type 2 error’ is already disproven
We cannot distinguish the sane person from the insane in psychiatric hospitals and also illustrated the dangerous of dehumanisation and labelling in psychiatric hospitals.
Solutions could be to use the mental facilities to concentrate on specific problems and behaviours rather than labelling someone insane which is vague and psychiatric workers should be trained on the complexities of mental health and the best way to treat their patients.

Question 10

What is type 2 error

Answer 10

Type two error is where a physician is more likely to call a healthy person sick than a sick person healthy

Question 11

Generalisability

Answer 11

High gen
He used a variety of hospitals old/new, private/state, well funded/underfunded and a variety of fake patients from different backgrounds
Experiment can relate to society, no matter of class status or wealth adding credibility and validity to the result
Low gen
Ethnocentric as all hospitals were in the US
Not representative of different cultures and countries reducing the credibility as a patient may not be considered mentally ill in a different part of the world depending on their views .

Question 12

Reliability

Answer 12

High reliability
Used a standardised procedure all pseudos heard the same voices and immediately stopped their symptoms after being admitted
Easy to replicate test for consistency adding status to the research
Slater supports the idea that it can be replicated
Spitzer criticises Slater and compromises the validity and reliability of mental health diagnosis and Rosenhans research

Question 13

What was slaters research

Answer 13

Replicates rosenhans study she presents herself to a psych hospital and claims she can hear the word thud she is diagnosed with psychiatric depression and given medication she tries this in nine different hospitals and gets the same result.

Question 14

What what’s spritzers criticism of slater

Answer 14

Criticises Slater and describes her methodology to psychiatrist 73 of them respond and 86% of the psychiatrists said they would’ve ruled out to diagnosis. She had been given this compromising the validity and reliability of mental health diagnosis and rosenhan’s reaserch

Question 15

Validity

Answer 15

High internal validity
Stuff did not know about the pseudo patients and so treated them like any other patient
Staff are unlikely to have behaved due to demand characteristics and behaved naturally establishing cause effect relationship
Low validity
Not all data was included Harry Lando was the ninth fake patient and described his 19th day as extremely favourable as the nurses engaged with them for an hour playing cards ECT
Research bias as he began a romantic relationship with a nurse

Question 16

Ethics

Answer 16

Low ethics
Doctors and nurses did not know about the fake patients due to the covert observation therefore they were deceived and did not give consent .
Low ethics
Pseudo patience were put in harms way in the institution

Question 17

Application

Answer 17

We need to improve diagnostic procedures and treatment of patients as seven pseudo patients were diagnosed falsely and they witnessed abuse and neglect of other patients. More accurate diagnosis saves funds time and resources.