Psychology - Rosenhan study - Alternative Evidence

Alternative Evidence

Replications

Salter (2004) attempted to replicate Rosenhan's study, although not as a piece of systematic research. Unlike Rosenhan's pseudopatients. Slater had previously been diagnosed with a mental disorder. She presented herself at nine psychiatric emergency halluncination. In almost all cases, she claims that she was given a diagnosis of psychotic depression and was prescribed either antipsychotics or antidepressants. Slater concluded that psychiatric diagnoses are largely arbitrary and driven by a 'zeal to prescribe'.

Critics

Spitzer (1976) claimed that Rosenhan's findings do not invalidate psychological diagnostic systems. Spitzer argued that is not surprising that the psychiatrists believed in the pseudopatients because:

• diagnosis does rely…