Rosenhan

• What was the aim (Rosenhan)?

  To investigate if psychiatric staff can distinguish sanity and insanity
• What was the method(Rosenhan)?

  Field experiment
• What was the sample(Rosenhan)?

  8 pseudopatients in 12 psychiatric hospitals in the USA
• What was the procedure(Rosenhan)?

  The pseudopatients called the hospital for an appointment

  They said they heard voices saying the words "empty", "hollow" and "thud"

  Upon admission the pseudopatients stopped pretending any symptoms and acted normal

  The pseudopatients took notes of behaviour and actions in the psych wards
• What were the results(Rosenhan)?

  All pseudopatients were admitted

  On 11 of the 12 occasions the pseudopatients were diagnosed with schizophrenia (the one diagnosed with manic depressive psychosis)

  The 11 with schizophrenia were later said to be "in remission" when they left the hospitals
• What is a type 2 error for Rosenhan?

  A false positive- diagnosing someone as sick when they are healthy. Rosenhan this was an issue as it would lead to prejudice against these people due to the stickiness of labels.
• How was the stickiness of labels seen in this experiment?

  This was seen in the experiment as:

  1. When let out, the patients were only "in remission" so that label stayed with them
  2. When a patient went "berserk" due to mistreatment from staff the nurse would say this was due to their condition and not the staff's fault
  3. When a patient told the nurse of minor rows with his family, she interpreted this as "considerable ambivalence in close relationships" and there was extensive writing of his emotional instability
• What was Rosenhan's follow up study?

  Staff at a large hospital said that they could easily tell who was a pseudopatient. Rosenhan replied to this by saying that at some point in the next 3 months he would send at least 1 pseudopatient to them
• What were the results in the follow up study(Rosenhan)?

  193 patients went to that hospital for treatment in the 3 months:

  • 23 judged as pseudopatients by at least one member
  • 19 judged to be pseudopatients by both a psychiatrist and another member of staff
  • In actuality the number of pseudopatients was 0
• What was the conclusion(Rosenhan)?

  There was considerable support for his hypothesis. This is because there was no reliable and valid way to distinguish sane from insane. This causes the stickiness of labels.