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AO3 Evaluation - Coggle Diagram
AO3 Evaluation
Validity
High in EV: Rosenhan's study took place in real hospitals, with real staff and patients who were unaware of the study taking place.This means the behaviour they showed would be representative of their true behaviours.
The researchers' experiences cannot be entirely valid, as they were not experiencing genuine symptoms of insanity.
Observer bias: Use of participant observers compromises the validity of research, as observers could lose their objectivity. They might have over-empathised with other patients and distorted their reports of staff behaviour
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High internal validity: Despite being in natural setting, Rosenhan managed to control many variables.
- E.g. the pseudo-patients who conducted the mini experiments did so using standardised procedures.
The pseudo-patients also presented themselves to the admissions department in a standardised way and all adhered to the instructions to keep various details true to life and various personal details concelaed.
This allowed standardisation and therefore direct comparison between hospitals.
‘Stickiness of psychiatric labels’
'Schizophrenia in remission'
Validity – not accurate to have the label of schizophrenia but the implication was profound.
Temporal validity: Rosenhan's study was conducted in the early 1970s. Many factors related to psychiatric diagnosis and treatment have changed since then.When this study took place the DSM was in its 3rd revision - the disorders were not as well operationalised as theyare today, different disorders were included and the system for diagnosis was different. Therefore, the results may not apply to psychiatric hospitals in current times.
Reliability
Rosenhan highlights the problems with using classification systems such as DSM-5. The criteria for disorders are too vague and arbitrary, meaning that subjective bias can undermine and distort diagnosis
Kirkbride et al 2012: found that diagnostic rates of schizophrenia were disproportinately high in black males as compared to white males. This shows that Rosenhan's findings can be applied to revealing racial bias in the diagnosis of mental illness.
Low inter-observer reliability: There was no direct comparison of the observations between the pseudo-patients in different hospitals.
High inter-observer reliability: observations seemed to be consistent with each other, with all pseudo-patients reporting similar experiences.
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Sampling bias
Good generalisabillty: Rosenhan tried to make the study generalisable by using a variety of hospitals across America. This menat that results would not be attributed to the type of hospital but could be considered representative of all psychiatric hospitals in America.
Low generalisability: However, the hospitals were only in Ameria. Different countries have different systems for psychiatric diagnosis and hospitalisation, so the results cannot be generalised beyond America.
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