Y2: Psychology: Clinical Practical Part 2

1) There was more resistance to going back to hospital for the real life cases as opposed to the fictional clips therefore suggesting that the media do not accurately portray how people with mental illnesses really feel about treatment
2) There was less comforting behaviour in the fictional clips therefore meaning the media doesn’t accurately portray the hardships people with mental illness have to face whereby they may develop comforting behaviours as a way to help cope
3) There were similar amounts of outbursts in both sources and so the media may in fact accurately portray the behaviours of those with mental illnesses however symptoms of mental illness are very generalised and those of schizophrenia may be more prone to aggressive outbursts than those with depression

• We agree with the previous research of Oosdyck (2008) who states that the portray mental illness negatively on TV

• This has important implications for society and for those with mental disorders as the portrayal may deter them from seeking medical help

• Therefore we need to challenge the stereotypes by using the media to change public prejudices by portraying mental health more accurately with more positive stories

P - Low
E - We used a small sample of 4 short clips from youtube
E - Therefore cannot be generalised due to only using video clips instead of other media such as magazines and for only focusing on schizophrenia for 2 clips and an unstated disorder for 2 more

P - High
E - Standardised procedure of coding themes such as outbursts
E - Therefore it’s easier to replicate the experiment and test for consistency of themes in other media
P - Low inter-rater
E - Only one person looked for themes in each clip
E - Therefore elements of subjectivity will make it harder to compare results

P - Yes
E - It shows that the media portrays mental health negatively
E - Dramatisation of what mental health actually involves may lead to people not wanting to seek help and so media should portray it more positively

P - High ecological
E - Real life case studies were used
E - The patients were in a familiar environment in the clips and so their behaviour would be accurate to what they would usually display when not being filmed
P - Low
E - Themes came from preconceived ideas about the media’s portrayal
E - Therefore they would be subjective and would involve researcher bias as the researcher is looking for behaviours that would support the themes, not one that go against

P - Good
E - Used data that was already published
E - Therefore its existence would mean we didn’t need to consider any ethical guidelines, nor were any broken
P - Good
E - Implications for publishing our research
E - Will help to improve media’s negative portrayal and so will benefit society

1) Use a wider range of mental illnesses and media formats in our sample to have higher generalisability
2) Use multiple researchers to look for themes in the same clips to establish higher inter-rater reliability
3) Involve a blind researcher to watch the clips with no idea about the aim to improve subjectivity and researcher bias