OCR A-Level Psychology H567
Research Methods and Techniques
Planning and Conducting Research
Data Recording, Analysis and Presentation
Report Writing and Scientific Communication
Practical Activities and the Nature of Science
Mathematical Requirements for Research Methods
Studying and Evaluating the Core Studies: The Common Framework
Core Studies: Social Area
Core Studies: Cognitive Area
Core Studies: Developmental Area
Core Studies: Biological Area
Core Studies: Individual Differences Area
Areas and Perspectives in Psychology
Debates in Psychology
Practical Applications of Psychology
Issues in Mental Health
Child PsychologyApplied option
Criminal PsychologyApplied option
Environmental PsychologyApplied option
Sport and Exercise PsychologyApplied option
Methodological Issues and Debates Running Through Applied Psychology
Issues in Mental Health
Rosenhan (1973) on being sane in insane places: results, conclusions and evaluation
- 3 things to know
- Component 03
Overview
Recall questions on Rosenhan's findings on reinterpreted behaviour, depersonalisation and staff responses, the follow-up study at a teaching hospital, conclusions about diagnostic labels and hospital environments, and the study's strengths, ethics, critics and relevance to categorising disorders.
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Give an example of ordinary behaviour being reinterpreted in the light of the diagnosis.
What do the two studies together show about diagnostic error?
Questions from this subtopic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
Give an example of ordinary behaviour being reinterpreted in the light of the diagnosis.
Model answer
Note-taking by a pseudopatient was recorded in the nursing notes as engaging in writing behaviour, and queuing outside the dining hall before it opened was read as evidence of the oral-acquisitive nature of the syndrome.
- 2
What evidence did Rosenhan gather about depersonalisation on the wards?
Model answer
Staff spent most of their time inside a glassed-in office away from patients, contact with psychiatrists averaged only a few minutes a day, patients had almost no privacy, and medication was handed out in large quantities but frequently flushed away.
- 3
Describe the test in which pseudopatients approached staff with a polite question.
Model answer
They asked staff a reasonable question about grounds privileges; psychiatrists made eye contact about a quarter of the time and stopped to talk in only a handful of cases, while nurses and attendants usually walked straight past.
- 4
What did the follow-up study at the teaching hospital involve?
Model answer
Staff who doubted such errors could happen at their hospital were warned that one or more pseudopatients would try to gain admission over the following three months, and were asked to rate every new patient.
- 5
What was the outcome of the follow-up study?
Model answer
Of 193 genuine patients, 41 were confidently judged to be pseudopatients by at least one member of staff, even though Rosenhan had sent nobody at all.
- 6
What do the two studies together show about diagnostic error?
Model answer
Together they show that psychiatric judgement can fail in both directions, since the sane were called ill in the first study and the genuinely ill were called sane in the second.
Other ways to work this
The same content, four other ways.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Every question in Issues in Mental Health, on a schedule.
Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.
Or £46 a year, about £3.83 a month. Cancel anytime.