rosenhan et al. (1973)

Question 1

What was the aim of Rosenhan et al. (1973)

Answer 1

• To reveal what he saw as deep flaws in the process of psychiatric diagnosis.
• To demonstrate that psychiatrists could not distinguish ‘the sane from the insane’.
• Aimed to provide evidence to support the idea that mental disorders lie not with the individual but the person making the diagnosis.
• aimed to gain access to psychiatric wards and record how patients are treated by the doctors and nurses.

Question 2

How many ppts were there and what role did they assume ?

Answer 2

There were 8, 5 men - 3 women, Pseudopatients

Question 3

What did the ppts purport to hear?

Answer 3

A same sex, unfamiliar voice that was unclear but said ‘empty’, ‘hollow’ and ‘thud’ - terms not normally linked to schizophrenia.

Question 4

What happened after the ppts were omitted?

Answer 4

1. If asked, they would say they no longer heard any voice
2. Would cooperate with orders
3. communicate with other patients
4. kept records of how they were treated - initially in private but then in public, when they realised that the staff were not paying attention to them.
   ALL TO CONVINCE THE STAFF THAT THEY WERE SANE

Question 5

What happened in the FOLLOW-UP STUDY?

Answer 5

• After initial study - some hospitals wanted to show this could not happen in their workplace.
• Rosenhan agreed to send them some pseudopatients to see if they could identify the healthy ones
• (no patients were sent)
• staff asked to rate on a scale of 1-10 (1 being confident in diagnosis and 10 not being confident) whether they thought the patient was fake.

Question 6

What happened in the mini-experiment?

Answer 6

Psuodopatients approached a staff member in the hospital grounds and asked a courteous question about their release. Responses were compared with a similar encounter between people on the Stanford university campus.

Question 7

What were the findings of the original study?

Answer 7

• seven were diagnosed with schizophrenia
• one with bipolar disorder
• when released, they were said to have ‘schizophrenia in remission’
• the length of hospitalisation ranged from 7 to 52 days, with an average of 19 days
• about 30% of patience

Question 8

what did Rosenhan conclude ?

Answer 8

he concluded ‘we cannot distinguish the sane from the insane in psychiatric hospitals’. he believed that the hospital environment led to depersonalisation and segregation and this meant people were seen as insane.

Question 9

generalisability ?

Answer 9

• diverse range of hospitals:
• old
• new
• public
• private
• well-funded
• under-funded
• therefore, it had a high generalisability

Question 10

ecological and temporal validity ?

Answer 10

• it was ecologically valid because it took place in hospitals
• it was a field study and so has applications to other hospital environments
• however, it took place in 1973 and so the study may not be temporally valid as it is very likely that the hospitals have been refurbished and the DSM is now on DSM-V, as opposed to DSM-III

Question 11

ethics ?

Answer 11

• may not be ethical
• after study was conducted, some nurses no who had originally misdiagnosed the pseudo patients no longer felt competent
• therefore may not be ethical because it caused some of the nurse psychological harm and it deceived them