Langer and Rodin

Question 1

What did Langer and Rodin aim to do?

Answer 1

• see whether increased responsibility meant more happiness for a group of nursing home patients
• also wanted to test increased responsibility on factors that hadn’t already been tested

Question 2

How can Langer and Rodin’s study be placed in a wider context?

Answer 2

“control refers to the extent to which an individual feels able to direct or regulate his/her own behaviour” Sources of control can either be internal or external. People who have higher internal locus - less stress - less likely to become ill. As the population gets older it is important that the OAP’s continue to make choices, so they are less likely to become ill

Question 3

How else can Langer & Rodin’s study be placed in a wider context?

Answer 3

Seligman - lack of control leads to depression, he called it learned helplessness. L&R were looking to see if increased choice/responsibility improved wellbeing

Question 4

How can Langer & Rodin’s study be placed into an academic context?

Answer 4

Ferrare - observed an old person choosing where they lived. A group of 17 OAP’s moved to a old people’s home and after 4 weeks, 4 had died and after 10 weeks a further 8 had died (deaths were unexpected). This suggests a lack of choice affects wellbeing

Question 5

What was Langer & Rodin’s research method?

Answer 5

Field experiment in a high quality nursing home in the USA (connecticut)

Question 6

What was Langer & Rodin’s sample?

Answer 6

91 OAP’s

-aged 65-90 (not in this age were discounted)

Question 7

How many groups were there from the 2 floors?

Answer 7

2

Question 8

How many males were there in the RIG group on the 4th floor?

Answer 8

8

Question 9

How many females were there in the RIG group on the 4th floor?

Answer 9

39

Question 10

How many males were there in the CG group on the 2nd floor?

Answer 10

9

Question 11

How many females were there in the CG group on the 2nd floor?

Answer 11

35

Question 12

What were pps given?

Answer 12

A questionnaire

Question 13

What did the questionnaire ask them to do?

Answer 13

Rate how happy they are on a scale of 0-8

Question 14

What did the research assistant rate?

Answer 14

Their alertness

Question 15

What was given to the groups a week later by the 33 y/o male boss of the home?

Answer 15

Announcements

Question 16

What were the RIG group told?

Answer 16

You’re responsible for yourselves

• allowed to make choices e.g. movie night
• could look after a plant too

Question 17

What were the CG group told?

Answer 17

Staff are responsible for their happiness

• staff made decisions for them e.g. movie night
• staff looked after plant

Question 18

After 3 days what were the RIG group told?

Answer 18

We want you to be happy, make all the decisions you used to make

Question 19

After 3 days what were the CG told?

Answer 19

We want you to be happy

Question 20

3 weeks later what did 2 nurses fill in?

Answer 20

A second questionnaire

Question 21

What was the 2nd questionnaire assessing?

Answer 21

The pps across a 9,10 point scale including alertness, active participation and wellbeing

Question 22

What other sort of measures were there?

Answer 22

Behavioural - if went to movie night did they enter into the number of jelly beans competition

Question 23

How did Langer & Rodin address some ethical issues?

Answer 23

Ensuring both groups got high quality care

Question 24

What did Langer & Rodin find on the 1st questionnaire?

Answer 24

No significant differences between the RIG and CG on happiness

Question 25

What % of the RIG group felt happier when they could make choices themselves?

Answer 25

48%

Question 26

What % of the CG group felt happier?

Answer 26

25%

Question 27

What did Langer & Rodin find about the RIG group?

Answer 27

They spent less time doing passive things and more time visiting other patients, visiting other people outside the home and more time talking to staff

Question 28

Which group attended movie night the most?

Answer 28

RIG - no difference 1 month earlier though

Question 29

How many pps of the RIG group took part in the jelly bean guessing competition?

Answer 29

10

Question 30

How many pps in the CG group took part in the jelly bean guessing competition?

Answer 30

1

Question 31

The nurses judged what % of the RIG group had improved?

Answer 31

93%

Question 32

The nurses judged what % of the CG group had improved?

Answer 32

21%

Question 33

What % of the pps were unable to understand what we meant by control and so this measure was not used as a comparison?

Answer 33

20%

Question 34

What were the 2 things Langer and Rodin concluded?

Answer 34

• Giving people more responsibility means they’re happier and have a better mental and phsical health (93% improvement)
• Procedures should be put in place to remove any factors in institutions that reduce real or perceived responsibility

Question 35

Was reliability a strength for Langer and Rodin?

Answer 35

Yes - could be repeated as it was controlled and used the same rating scales, also nurses didn’t know the hypothesis (double blind)

Question 36

Was validity a strength for Langer and Rodin?

Answer 36

No - findings only apply to OAP’s in a home, also may not apply to other countries. Also care home was one of the best

Question 37

Was the sample strong?

Answer 37

Yes - 91 pps is large no. However all pps were from 1 nursing home in 1 USA town, also some gender bias

Question 38

What data was collected?

Answer 38

Quantitative - enables comparisons

However little qualitative data was collected

Question 39

Was ethics a problem for Langer and Rodin?

Answer 39

Partially - although all pps received good care, pps in the control group weren’t protected from harm. This breaks BPS guidelines

Question 40

Who did Langer and Rodin support and how?

Answer 40

Ferrare - both suggested choice affects wellbeing. It could be said they improved upon the work because they used more pps

Question 41

Whose evidence supports Langer and Rodin and how?

Answer 41

Kunzmann et al - used data from the Berlin Ageing Study. They found positive relationship between perceived control and emotional wellbeing, this evidence is similar because control was linked to emotional wellbeing and in L&R’s improvement was seen in the RIG group

Question 42

Whose evidence challenges Langer and Rodin and how?

Answer 42

Friedman - suggests lack of choice isn’t only factor. Personality closely related to wellbeing, type A more stressed more heart attacks, type B more laid back less heart attacks live longer. This challenges L&R because it suggests illness and unhappiness is caused by personality type. However could the 2 studies be not comparable as Friedman used male pps 35-59 and L&R used male and female 65-90