Cooper et al (1972)

Showed videos of clinical interviews with UK and US psychiatric patients to UK and US psychiatrists.

Psychiatrists made a diagnosis using the ICD.

NY psychiatrists were 2x more likely to diagnose schizophrenia, London psychiatrists were 2x more likely to diagnose mania or depression.

Rosenhan (1973)

8 pseudopatients (confederates) got themselves admitted to hospital with the diagnosis of schizophrenia.

Pseudopatients all reported hearing voices (auditory hallucinations) and single words such as "hollow" and "thud."

During their stay, nursing staff interpreted behaviours as symptoms of the disorder. E.g., "patient engages in writing behaviour" was recorded as evidence of the disorder.

Pseudopatients were discharged with the label "schizophrenia in remission" an average of 19 days later.

Rosenhan (1973)

Wanted to see if abnormal people could be labelled as normal.

Staff at a teaching hospital were told to expect fake patients.

Found that staff couldn't reliably identify pseudopatients.

No pseudopatients appeared, however 41 real patients were judged as being pseudopatients by at least 1 member of staff.