In the Hock reading. Rosenhan\'s experiments shed light on the importance of con
ID: 3491392 • Letter: I
Question
In the Hock reading. Rosenhan's experiments shed light on the importance of context in understanding psychological disorder. Think of a real world example (not described in the Hock reading) in which the context (location, setting, social context, culture, etc.) might impact the interpretation of a potential psychological symptom (depressed mood, anxiety, hallucinations, hyperactivity inattention, etc.). Identify one potential negative consequence of ignoring the context in which this particular symptom if observed.Explanation / Answer
A real world example where the context might impact the interpretation of potential psychological symptom might be a school situation with the students. For example, a student who is predispositionally quiet and attentive in class and in other situation, has been placed in a class where all the notorious and inattentive students are placed. In the new environment, he experienced having fun in a different way (interrupting teachers, cracking jokes in class, getting involved with chatting amidst the class,etc). For the first time one day he was speaking to one of his classmates while the teacher was teaching mathematics and as a result he got inattentive with the class activity and later could not do the assignment given by the teacher. The teacher was new to the school and thus did not have any preconceived idea about any individual student but only knew about the class as a whole. Since the student was placed in a class full of notorious kids, the teacher ignored his previous record and predispositional factors and labelled the student as inattentive and hyperactive along with other's in the class. Thus the presence of the location and the social context played an important role in marking the child with inattention and hyperactivity. However hard the child tried to convince the teacher that he was not so, the teacher did not agree to change her mind and considered him as one of the notorious kids.
One of the potential negative consequence of ignoring the context is that there are chances of misdiagnosis. Either tge person may be stigmatized with diagnosis or may be misdiagnosis may take place. Thus all the aspects should be taken into consideration while providing a diagnosis so that there is no stigma related to psychiatric disorders.