D Rosenhan Summary

In this study, D. L. Rosenhan attempted to answer the question of whether or not people can discern between normal and abnormal behavior. Abnormality, or lack of it, was the aspect of human behavior that they were interested in. A person's diagnosis of being mentally ill or not is based off of his or her abnormality. Furthermore, the diagnosis affects the degree of treatment that the patient is to receive. However, there is no definite definition for abnormality; thus, it is difficult to categorize a person as normal or abnormal since the dividing factor between the two opposites are unclear. In summary, a person's level of normality or abnormality is based on different behavioral factors under the judgment of others. In order to find an answer, Rosenhan conducted a study where he and seven other people entered a mental facility under the guise of being schizophrenic.
Once admitted, the subjects proceeded to behave normally, showing no signs of schizophrenia at all. Nonetheless, they had an extremely difficult time convincing the doctors and nurses that they were "normal." It took between seven to fifty-two days for each subject to be released from the medical ward. Moreover, every single one of their mental health statuses were established as "schizophrenia in remission" when they were all released. The medical staff was not able to discern any of the subjects from actual patients. On the other hand, other patients suspected the subjects to be imposters. Overall, the significance of this study is learning about the impact of labels. Once a person is categorized in society, it is extremely difficult to remove the label. In the study, the subjects were diagnosed as schizophrenics. When they were permitted to leave, they were still called schizophrenics, but in