... false pattern of symptoms. Rosenhan's study can be criticised because a small sample of only 8 participants was used, therefore we cannot be certain that the DSM-11 process of diagnosis is always low in validity and high in reliability. The results form this study may have been due to other factors and not merely reliability and validity affecting the psychologist's diagnosis, and because the sample is so small we cannot determine this. The study can also be criticised because it was low in ecological validity and not very true to real-life. The psychologists are not normally confronted by patients who wish to be admitted, and so therefore their diagnosis may have been affected by this unusual occurrence. Temerlin conducted an experiment and found that clinically trained psychiatrists and clinical psychologists could be influenced in their diagnosis by an authority figure. The patient was an actor who had no symptoms, but just ...

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