Rosenhan's study
- Created by: Sophstevensx
- Created on: 20-03-21 12:02
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- Rosenhan et al
- Aim
- Psychiatrists cannot reliably tell the difference between people who are sane and those who are insane
- Sample
- The real subjects (people results are obtained from) were the psychiatrists making the diagnoses (and nurses)
- The psychiatrists and hospital nurses’ reactions to 8 were recorded. The 8 pseudo patients were; 1 graduate psychologist (Rosenhan himself), 3 psychologists, 1 psychiatrist , 1 peadiatrician, 1 painter, 1 housewife
- pseudo patients (perfectly sane people feigning symptoms of mental illness)
- Procedure
- experiment 1
- Pseudopatients made appointments to see psychiatrist
- 12 different hospitals in five different USA states used
- pseudopatients complained of hearing voices – saying the words empty, hollow and thud - picked because they infer existential psychoses (life is meaningless) which is (was) not well reported in the psychiatric literature at the time
- Otherwise they behaved perfectly ‘normally’
- experiment 2
- Sceptical staff at different hospitals were informed some pseudo patients would arrive at some time withinn the next three months (when in reality they wouldn’t be sent)
- This was to see if the insane could be misdiagnosed as sane
- Staff rated the likelihood of imposters (pseudopatients) on a 10 point scale
- experiment 1
- Results
- experiment 1
- All were mis-diagnosed as mentally ill (7 as schizophrenic, 1 as manic-depressive) and hospitalized immediately (they then had to gain release on their own and made notes whilst hospitalized). They stopped claiming to hear voices and behaved perfectly normally
- Hospitalization varied from 7-52 days! (average stay was 19 days) before discharged (with ‘in remission’ attached to their diagnosis - e.g. ‘schizophrenia in remission’)
- experiment 2
- 41 out of 193 (genuine) mental patients were judged as pseudo patients by at least one staff member (23 being suspected by a psychiatrist!)
- experiment 1
- experience of hospitalisation
- Staff assumed the note-taking was ‘a sign of mental disturbance’, and pacing the corridor out of genuine boredom was a due to ‘nervousness’
- Those waiting outside the cafeteria for lunch one day because they were hungry were described as displaying the ‘oral-acquisitive syndrome’
- One pseudopatient who when talking about his early childhood said he he felt closer to his mother, but on other occasions his father, was described as having ‘a long history of considerable ambivalence in close relationships which begins in early childhood’
- Pseudopatients sometimes approached staff with simple requests, such as asking when their case may be reviewed. These requests were largely ignored, with a lack of eye-contact even.
- Aim
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