Rosenhan First study describe

Question 0

What type of experiment was it?

Answer 0

A field experiment

Question 1

What was the aim of the study?

Answer 1

To test the hypothesis that psychiatrists cannot reliably tell the difference between people who are sane and those who are insane.

Question 2

What was the IV?

Answer 2

The IV was the made up symptoms of the pseudo patients.

Question 3

What was the DV?

Answer 3

The DV was the psychiatrists’ admission and diagnostic label of the pseudo patient.

Question 5

How did the study involve observation?

Answer 5

It involved participant observation as once admitted, the pseudo-patients kept written records of how the ward as a whole operated and how they were personally treated.

Question 6

Who were the participants?

Answer 6

eight sane people, three women and five men.

Question 7

How many hospitals were the participants attempting to gain admission to and where were these hospitals?

Answer 7

12 different hospitals, in five different states in the USA.

Question 8

What did the pseudo patients complain of during their appointment at the hospital?

Answer 8

They complained they had been hearing voices

Question 9

How did they describe the voices and what did they say?

Answer 9

They said the voice was unfamiliar, the same sex as themselves and and often unclear but said ‘empty’, ‘hollow’ and ‘thud’.

Question 10

Why were these symptoms chosen?

Answer 10

Because they were similar to existential symptoms (who am I, What is this all for?) and also because they there is no mention of existential psychosis in the literature.

Question 11

What information did the pseudo patients not give?

Answer 11

They gave a false name and job to protect their future health and employment records.

Question 12

What information did the pseudo patients give?

Answer 12

Apart form name and job, all other details given were true including general ups and downs of life, relationships, events of life history etc.

Question 13

How did the pseudo patients act once admitted to the psychiatric ward?

Answer 13

They stopped simulating any symptoms of abnormality but Rosenhan noted that they were nervous, probably because of fear of being exposed as a fraud and the overall situation

Question 14

When asked how they were feeling by staff, what did the pseudo patients say?

Answer 14

They said they were fine and no longer experiences the symptoms.

Question 15

What were the pseudo patients told they had to do to get out by Rosenhan?

Answer 15

Each patient had been told they would have to get out by their own devices by convincing staff they were sane.

Question 16

What did the pseudo patients do in relation to gathering evidence?

Answer 16

The pseudo patients spent time writing notes about their observations. Initially this was done secretly although as it became clear that no one was bothered the note taking was done more openly.

Question 17

What did the pseudo patients do in relation to gathering evidence? (notes)

Answer 17

The pseudo patients spent time writing notes about their observations. Initially this was done secretly but soon become more open.

Question 18

What did the pseudo patients do in relation to gathering evidence? (treatment of patients)

Answer 18

In four of the hospitals the pseudo patients carried out an observation of behaviour of staff towards patients that illustrate the experience of being hospitalised on a psychiatric ward. The pseudo patients approached a staff member with a request, which took the following form: ‘Pardon me, Mr/Mrs/Dr X, could you tell me when I will be presented at the staff meeting?’. (or ‘…when am I likely to be discharged?’).

Question 19

How did Rosenhan compare results from the four hospitals where pseudo patients observed staff behaviour towards patients?

Answer 19

In order to compare the results Rosenhan carried out a similar study at Stanford University with students asking university staff a simple question.

Question 20

RESULTS. What were the pseudo patients personal feelings towards the study?

Answer 20

All of the pseudo patients disliked the experience and wished to be discharged immediately.

Question 21

How many pseudo patients were detected?

Answer 21

none

Question 22

How many patients were admitted with a diagnosis of schizophrenia? Why is this bad?

Answer 22

All but one and it was bad because the the the diagnosis’were made without one clear symptom of this disorder.

Question 23

What were the pseudo patients eventually discharged with?

Answer 23

They were eventually discharged with a diagnosis of ‘schizophrenia in remission’

Question 24

How long did they remain in hospital for?

Answer 24

hey remained in hospital for 7 to 52 days (average 19 days)

Question 25

What did visitors to the pseudo patients observe?

Answer 25

Visitors to the pseudo patients observed ‘no serious behavioural consequences’.

Question 26

How many real patients suspected the pseudo patients sanity?

Answer 26

(35 out of the 118 patients voiced their suspicions). Some patients voiced their suspicions very vigorously for example ‘You’re not crazy. You’re a journalist, or a professor. You’re checking up on the hospital’.

Question 27

What normal behaviours demonstrated by the pseudo patients were considered abnormal by the hospital staff?

Answer 27

Nursing records for three of the pseudo patients showed that their writing was seen as an aspect of their pathological behaviour. Similarly, a psychiatrist pointed to a group of patients waiting outside the cafeteria half an hour before lunchtime. To a group of registrars (trainee psychiatrists) he suggested that such behaviour was characteristic of an oral-acquisitive syndrome. However, a more likely explanation would be that the patients had little to do, and one of the few things to anticipate in a psychiatric hospital is a meal.

Question 28

In the four pseudo patients own observation, what percentage of psychiatrists and nurses moved on with heads averted when spoken to?

Answer 28

Psychiatrists: 71%. Nurses 88%.

Question 29

In the four pseudo patients own observation, what percentage of psychiatrists and nurses made eye contact when spoken to?

Answer 29

Psychiatrists: 23%. Nurses 10%.

Question 30

In the four pseudo patients own observation, what percentage of psychiatrists and nurses paused and chatted when spoken to?

Answer 30

Psychiatrists 2% Nurses 2%.

Question 31

In the four pseudo patients own observation, what percentage of psychiatrists and nurses Stopped and properly talked when spoken to?

Answer 31

Psychiatrists 4%. Nurses 0.5%.

Question 32

what did Rosenhan note about the experience of hospitalisation for pseudo patients?

Answer 32

Rosenhan noted that experience of hospitalisation for the pseudo patients was one of depersonalisation and powerlessness.

Question 33

What human rights were the patients deprived of?

Answer 33

the patients were deprived of many human rights such as freedom of movement and privacy.

Question 34

What was noted in terms of violence to patients?

Answer 34

Some of the ward orderlies would be brutal to patients in full view of other patients but would stop as soon as another staff member approached. This indicated that staff were credible witnesses but patients were not.

Question 35

What was noted in terms of medication?

Answer 35

It was estimated that the pseudo patients were given a total of 2,100 medication tablets, though only two were swallowed. The rest were either pocketed or flushed down the toilet. Often, when the pseudo patients visited the toilets to dispose of their tablets they found the medication of other patients that had already been placed there.

Question 36

What was noted in terms of the amount of time the nurses stayed in the ward offices?

Answer 36

The records the pseudo patients had made about the amount of time the nurses stayed in the ward offices was about 90 per cent of the time and the number of times medical staff came onto the ward, and the amount of time spent with psychiatrists, psychologists, registrars and so forth was, on average, under seven minutes per day.

Question 37

What year was the study?

Answer 37

1973