Clinical Psychology - Studies Flashcards
What is the aim of Rosenhan (1973)’s study?
To investgate whether the sane can be reliably and accurately distingushed from the insane.
What is the procedure of Rosenhan’s study?
8 psuedopatients (ppts) were confederates over 20. There were 3 females and 5 males, including Rosenhan.
This took place over 12 hospitals and 5 states in the USA.
Each ppt presented themselves at a psychiatric hospital complaining of the same symptoms. They said they heard an unfamilar voice saying “empty, hollow, thud.”
Psuedonyms were used and those with careers in mental health lied about their jobs.
Once they were admitted into hospital, they acted normal. They had to be released by their own means by convincing staff they were fine and acted normal, trying to talk to other patients and obeyed the rules.
What are the findings of Rosenhan’s study?
All ppts were admitted to the hospital. 7 were diagnosed with schizophrenia, one was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
When released, they had ‘schizophrenia in remission.’
The length of hospitalization was 7-52 days with an avg. of 19 days.
30% of patients on the ward raised suspicion about the pseudo patient. They thought that they were saying, and perhaps journalists or professors. Depersonalisation of patients - ward attendants abused patients.
Conclusion of Rosenhan’s study?
Rosenhan concluded that we cannot distinguish the sane from the insane. Staff were unaware that they were being observed, and the hospital environment created a set of situational factors, which led to depersonalisation and segregation.
Generalisability of Rosenhan’s study?
There were only 8 pseudopatients so only 8 mental institutions could be included in the study - limited generalisabilty as it is a very small sample to represent all of the mental institutions in America at the time.
However, the treatment of the pseudopatients could be generalised as there were both male and female in the group, meaning the treatment received wasn’t specific to men/women.
Reliablity of Rosenhan’s study?
There was a clear standardised procedure followed by the pseudopatients means that the study could, in theory be replicated in order to test for reliability.
Rosenhan did train his pseudopatients beforehand, but they didn’t all follow the same standardised procedures.
Application of Rosenhan’s study?
The study significantly impacted global mental health care, prompting psychiatric hospitals to reassess their admission procedures and staff training for patient interaction.
Validity of Rosenhan’s study?
High ecological validity - Ketty (1974) argued that pseudopatients faking mental conditions tells us nothing about how mental conditions are actually diagnosed.
However, it may be reliable in diagnosing schizophrenia, as 11/12 hospitals have diagnosed the same condition - goes against Rosenhan’s view that diagnosis is unreliable.
Ethics of Rosenhan’s study?
Hospital staff were deceived about pseudopatients’ symptoms, and doctors and nurses were unable to consent or withdraw from the study. Other patients also had no option for consent or withdrawal, and were not at the hospital in order to be involved in psychological research.
What type of study was Carlsson reviewing?
A literature review of studies, investigating neurochemical levels in patients with schizophrenia, studies into drugs that induce symptoms, use of recreational drugs inducing psychosis and effectiveness of treatment drugs.
Explain the dopamine hypothesis revisited (Carlsson)
PET scans show that amphetamine enhances schizophrenia-like symptoms in schizophrenics more than the controls. Insufficient - doesn’t apply to everyone with schizophrenia.
Explain beyond dopamine (Carlsson)
Neurotransmitters may interact so dopamine mnay not be the only cause of schizophrenia.
What is the thalamic filter? (Carlsson)
Carlsson proposes that the thalamus filters off neurotransmitters coming out of the striatum to stop the cerebral cortex overloading.
Generalisability of Carlsson et al.’s (2000) study?
As it was a meta-analysis, it used a huge range of samples and area/subjects of interest. tHerefor, making the results really generalisable to lots of schizophrenia patients.
However, this generalisability is compromised by the use of some animals in some of the research. There is low generalisability in using animals, making the results not as applicable to all patients.
Reliability of Carlsson et al.’s (2000) study?
The results of the study are reliable because they have been backed up by other research. Sendt et al. (2012) studied the glutamate hypothesis and found that glutamate dysfunction is the cause of negative and cognitive symptoms. Therefore making Carlsson’s findings more reliable.
However, the reliability of the meta-analysis can be questioned due to its use of secondary data.
