Practical

Question 1

What was the aim of our practical?

Answer 1

To investigate whether media portrayals of mental illness show patients to be more negative and aggressive compared to real life case studies.

Question 2

What are the variables of our practical?

Answer 2

IV = Extract from film or real life case study
DV = What content behaviour they showed (e.g. outbursts and attention seeking behaviour)
Controls = the same manifest content was looked for in the media and real life case studies, the length of each clip

Question 3

State the fully operationalised alternative hypothesis.

Answer 3

The media portrayal of mental illness will include a significantly higher number of aggressive behaviours (outbursts) than factual sources.

Question 4

State the fully operationalised null hypothesis.

Answer 4

There will be no significant differences in the number of aggressive behaviours (outbursts) between media and factual sources and so any differences will be due to chance.

Question 5

What sample did we use in our practical?

Answer 5

• 2 real life case studies from Youtube of Gerald and Heather who are diagnosed with schizophrenia
• 2 clips from the film Girl, Interrupted (1999) with focus on the main character who had mental health issues
• All sources were comparable in length and content

Question 6

What was the method used in our practical?

Answer 6

Summative content analysis

Question 7

What constituted as qualitative data in this practical?

Answer 7

1) Outbursts
2) Resistance of going back to hospital
3) Dysfunctional relationships
4) Attention seeking behaviour
5) Comforting behaviour

Question 8

What constituted as quantitative data in this practical?

Answer 8

The number of times these keywords appeared in the sources.

Question 9

Briefly describe the procedure of our practical.

Answer 9

• We found 2 Youtube clips of real life case studies of Heather and Gerald who have schizophrenia
• We found 2 more media clips of the film Girl, Interrupted (1999) that focused on the main character who had mental health issues
• All clips were 10 mins long and had similar content of focusing on mental health
• Conducting a summative content analysis, we chose themes to focus on prior to watching the videos that consisted of outbursts, attention seeking behaviour, not wanting to go back to the hospital, dysfunctional relationships and comforting behaviour
• We then tallied how many times those themes appeared in all sources to provide the manifest content of our analysis
• This was to compare the media’s portrayal of mental illness compared to real life cases

Question 10

State the results of the quantitative data from the tally.

Answer 10

1) Outbursts
- Fictional 10, real case 13
2) Resistance of going back to hospital
- Fictional 1, real case 7
3) Dysfunctional relationships
- Fictional 3, real case 5
4) Attention seeking behaviour
- Fictional 8, real case 4
5) Comforting behaviour
- Fictional 3, real case 9

Question 11

State the overall results.

Answer 11

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

Question 12

What can we conclude from our results?

Answer 12

• 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

Question 13

Evaluate the generalisablity using a low point.

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Evaluate reliability using a high and low point.

Answer 14

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

Question 15

Are there any applications?

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Evaluate validity using a high and low point.

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Evaluate 2 good ethical considerations of our practical.

Answer 17

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

Question 18

Give 3 examples of how we can improve our practical for future research?

Answer 18

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