Ethical Issues involved with "On Being Sane in Insane Places"
L Rosenhan's On Being Sane in Insane Places was both a historic and ground-breaking research study which provided invaluable information on the views of mental health professionals toward their patients. (Rosenhan, 1973) In this revealing study, several researchers, who had never displayed any abnormal behavior in their pasts, admitted themselves into a variety of mental health facilities and studied the behavior of the staffs of these institutions toward their patients. What these pseudo-patient researchers discovered rocked the scientific community by exposing those who treat mentally ill patients often have preconceived notions toward their patients and their behavior. The stigma of being labeled as "mentally ill" often clouded the staff's evaluation of the behavior of the pseudo-patients. And once labeled as "mentally ill" it was almost impossible to reverse that finding. (Rosenhan, 1973) This was an important, study which revealed vital information about mental heath professional's attitudes and behavior toward their patients, but also violated several ethical issues.
In order to gain admittance to the facilities, the researchers were forced to deceive the staff of these institutions by lying about their symptoms. (McBurney, 2007) While they behaved in every way "normal" once they were admitted, the mere fact that they deceived the staff...
The staff of these institutions were forced to base their evaluations of the pseudo-patient's behavior from the point-of-view that the pseudo-patients were indeed mentally ill, a false premise. Their subsequent failure to recognize seemingly "normal" behavior as normal can be explained by the fact that they were looking through the lens of mental illness. In other words, if the staff was told the patient was mentally ill, then they would treat the patient as though they were mentally ill; and not look for other reasons to explain their "normal" behavior other than their mental illness was "in remission." While deception can be ethical when necessary, it this case the staff did not have the full knowledge about their patients, and thus were unable to perform their duties correctly thereby influencing the study's results.
Beside the fact that they lied about their psychological condition, another ethical standard these researchers violated was not asking the staff's permission to use them in their research, the researchers did not get the informed consent of the staff. (McBurney, 2007) The staff was not made aware that they were being studied and thus could not give their permission. The fact that they did not know they were being studied also denied the staff their right to refuse to participate, and by extension their right to withdraw from the study. Modern ethical…
