On Being Sane In Insane Places Case Study
Psychological Issues
Assignment 1
Case Study
STUDENT: 21237964
MODULE LEADER: Rosemary Stock
Through history people have attempted to understand and classify abnormal behaviour and the medical module was seen as the most accepted way of doing so. This approach has used the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) to classify this behaviour. The study conducted by the psychologist David Rosenhan (1973) ‘On being sane in insane places’, came as a critic to the medical mode. The aim of this study was to find out whether psychiatrists could distinguish between those who were mentally sane and those who were not. Other more recent studies have been done within this area of research. Slater …show more content…
They both deceived the hospital and no member of staff gave consent on being a part of the study and/or being observed.
However, a strength of both studies reliability, is that it was conducted in various hospitals, the same symptom was reported in all of them and the same diagnosis was given (in Rosenham’s experiment, in 10 out of 11 hospitals). This shows the consistency on the diagnoses. And the fact that none of the participants on Rosenham’s study had a history of mental hilliness makes in more reliable. The same does not happen with Slater’s experiment which could have been deceived considering that Slater had previously been diagnosed with depression, which could have leaded her into acting in a way that would affect the diagnosis.
When Rosenhan conducted this study the psychiatric classification was the DSM-II. However, and even though there have been new classifications introduced, in Slater’s study, dated to 2004 the same errors occurred. It was to expect that with the introduction of the newer classification DSM-III, in 1980s, and more recently the DSM-IV, psychiatrists would make less mistakes and the problem of unreliability, especially unclear criteria, would be solved.
Assignment 1
Case Study
STUDENT: 21237964
MODULE LEADER: Rosemary Stock
Through history people have attempted to understand and classify abnormal behaviour and the medical module was seen as the most accepted way of doing so. This approach has used the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) to classify this behaviour. The study conducted by the psychologist David Rosenhan (1973) ‘On being sane in insane places’, came as a critic to the medical mode. The aim of this study was to find out whether psychiatrists could distinguish between those who were mentally sane and those who were not. Other more recent studies have been done within this area of research. Slater …show more content…
They both deceived the hospital and no member of staff gave consent on being a part of the study and/or being observed.
However, a strength of both studies reliability, is that it was conducted in various hospitals, the same symptom was reported in all of them and the same diagnosis was given (in Rosenham’s experiment, in 10 out of 11 hospitals). This shows the consistency on the diagnoses. And the fact that none of the participants on Rosenham’s study had a history of mental hilliness makes in more reliable. The same does not happen with Slater’s experiment which could have been deceived considering that Slater had previously been diagnosed with depression, which could have leaded her into acting in a way that would affect the diagnosis.
When Rosenhan conducted this study the psychiatric classification was the DSM-II. However, and even though there have been new classifications introduced, in Slater’s study, dated to 2004 the same errors occurred. It was to expect that with the introduction of the newer classification DSM-III, in 1980s, and more recently the DSM-IV, psychiatrists would make less mistakes and the problem of unreliability, especially unclear criteria, would be solved.