rosenham

• aim


  was to see if 8 sane people who gained admission into 12 different hospitals would be found out as sane

  also to find out what the experience of being sane in an insane place would be
• method


  study 1- 8 psuedopatients went to clinal interviews and reported they had symptoms of hearing voices

  when they were admitted they acted normal

  they noted and recorded what they witnessed- unstructured observations

  they were given medicine but refused it and begged to leave

  study 2- rosenham wondered whether the diagnosis of insane and sane people could be reversed- each staff member asked to rate patients presenting themselves in scale of 1-10 to reflect likelyhood of them being pseudopatients
• results


  all 12 hospitals diagnosed psuedo patients as mentally ill 11- schizo and 1 bipolar

  study 1- no records or behaviour by hospital staff showed that they had any doubts about the authnecity of patients

  study 2- rosenham found that 'normal' family backgrounds were interpreted as 'abnormal'

  it took between 7-52 days for pseudopatients to be discharged

  they observed other patients getting physcially and mentally abused
• conclusions


  concluded that the sane cannot be distinguished from the insane in psychiatric hospitals

  looked for suggestions to offer help to those mentally ill

  concerned that conditions do not help therapy in psychiatric wards
• evaluation


  generalisability- used a range of psychiatric hospitals- 12 is a small sample for USA- also time locked as mental health has progressed since 1970s

  reliability- showed inconsistency and failures to follow instructions due to psuedopatients tried to resist depersonalisation and powerlessness

  application- huge amount on mental health and the study is compulsory for part of training for psychiatric medicine and nurses
• evaluation

  validity- seymour and kitty criticised rosenham as they were faking mental health and isn't valid for real mental health

  ethics- doctors and nurses did not give consent or have the right to withdraw