Ethical considerations
in diagnosis
Year 13 Abnormal Psychology
What are the negative
implications of labelling people?
Scheff (1966)
• Scheff (1966) argued that one of the adverse effects
of labels is the self-fulfilling prophecy.
• What does this mean?
Doherty (1975)
• Doherty (1975) found that those who reject the
mental illness label often make quicker recoveries
than those who accept it.
The power of schema
processing
Participants were shown a
video of a younger man
talking to an older man
about his job experience.
Langer & Abelson
(1974)
The power of schema
processing
Participants were shown a video of a
younger man talking to an older man
about his job experience.
Those who had been told before
watching the video that the young
man was applying for a job described
him as attractive and conventionallooking.
Langer & Abelson
(1974)
The power of schema
processing
Participants were shown a video of a
younger man talking to an older man
about his job experience.
Those who had been told before
watching the video that the young
man was applying for a job described
him as attractive and conventionallooking.
Langer & Abelson
(1974)
Those who had been told he was a
patient described him as defensive,
tight, dependent and afraid of his
own impulses.
The power of schema
processing
Participants were shown a video of a
younger man talking to an older man
about his job experience.
Those who had been told before
watching the video that the young
man was applying for a job described
him as attractive and conventionallooking.
Langer & Abelson
(1974)
Those who had been told he was a
patient described him as defensive,
tight, dependent and afraid of his
own impulses.
What does this say about the effects of
schema processing when making
diagnoses?
Jenkins-Hall & Sacco
• European American therapists watched videos of
recorded clinical interviews and were asked to
evaluate the female patient.
Jenkins-Hall & Sacco
• European American therapists watched videos of
recorded clinical interviews and were asked to
evaluate the female patient.
• 4 conditions
Jenkins-Hall & Sacco
• European American therapists watched videos of
recorded clinical interviews and were asked to evaluate
the female patient.
• 4 conditions
• The African American patient was seen as less socially
competent than the European American woman.
Confirmation bias
• Confirmation bias
• As was shown in the Rosenhan study ‘On being sane
in insane places’, clinicians assume that if someone
has sought their help, there must be something
wrong with them.
Number of assessment
techniques
• Kahneman and Tversky (1973) found that there is
no positive correlation between the number of
assessment techniques and the accuracy of an
eventual diagnosis.
• Turn to the person next to you and tell them what
you think this means.
Institutionalization
• Institutionalization can be a confounding variable
when trying to establish the validity of a diagnosis.
• What does this mean?
Institutionalization
• Once admitted to an institution, all behaviour is viewed
as being part of a mental illness. (E.g. Rosenhan’s pseudo
patients’ pacing was seen as a symptom.)
Institutionalization
• Powerlessness
• Depersonalization