- (E) The Rosenhan study of mental institutions showed that confirmation bias, the tendency to pay
more attention to information that supports one’s views than challenges them, may influence
clinicians’ views and treatments of mental patients. In this study, a number of people checked
themselves into a variety of mental institutions, including small private facilities and large public
ones, reporting that they heard voices saying “empty,” “hollow,” and “thud.” The otherwise normal
people were admitted and then resumed their normal behavior. The study revealed that it took a
long time for any of the hospitals’ employees to realize that these patients were not in need of
treatment, something that might be partly explained by the fact that the staff members tended to
avoid contact with the patients. When the pseudopatients were released from the hospitals, they
were diagnosed as schizophrenics in remission, which illustrates the stickiness of labels. The
Rosenhan study showed that it can be difficult to discern who is mentally ill and who is well.
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(Marvins-Underground-K-12)
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