David Rosenhan's paper 'Being Sane in Insane Places' has become highly influential in the field of critical social psychology and has made a major contribution to the Psychiatric Survivors’ Movement and other civil rights movements advocating for changes in how we think about mental illness and mental health. The Rosenhan study has also had a growing impact on mainstream approaches to mental health and mental illness, although these remain nascent in many ways.

In this assessment, you will act as a policy consultant who has been asked by a policy development team at a large organisation to prepare a concise, professional review of Rosenhan’s paper. This policy group is responsible for renewing the organisation’s employee mental health policy, and your review will contribute to shaping its development.

To date, the policy team has consulted several experts who have identified key areas for prioritisation (see briefing document—available on Moodle). However, some members of the policy group are concerned that critical perspectives on mental health may be missing from their discussions. They have been informed that you have training in critical social psychology and possess strong knowledge of Rosenhan’s study, which they believe may offer a significantly different lens on employee mental health compared to mainstream psychological approaches. They are seeking your expertise to provide an alternative perspective that may not have been fully captured by previous consultants. Your review should highlight how Rosenhan’s findings challenge conventional assumptions and offer insights into how previously unconsidered institutional practices may impact workplace mental health.

Your Task

You will prepare a critical review (800 words max.) that critically examines Rosenhan’s study through the following three sections, aligning with the learning verbs present, relate, and elaborate:

1. You will present an overview of the Rosenhan paper and its impact (approx. 150 words).

2. You will relate the Rosenhan paper to a mainstream psychological concepts reflected in the briefing document provided to you by the organisation (approx. 250 words).

3. You will elaborate on the implications of the Rosenhan paper for developing an employee mental health policy in a large organisation (approx. 400 words).

Important information:

• The length of the assessment must not exceed 800 words.
• Your writing style should adopt a professional tone suitable for a non-academic audience: use simple, clear language that avoids jargon and overly complex sentences.
• Your assignment should be text-only, word-processed, and follow the APA style for layout.
• You should use Arial font and double spacing.
• You are not required to include citations, but if you do, a reference section must be included at the end of the assessment. References and citations should follow APA format.

Use of Generative AI:

Level of GenAI use allowed: Level 3: You may use Al to assist with specific tasks such as drafting text, refining and evaluating your work. You must critically evaluate and modify any Al-generated content you use.

For this assessment, you may elect to use Generative AI to help you:

• Supplement teaching resources provided on the unit to help you further understand the concepts discussed (such as those related to opposing views of mental illness) as well as finding and understanding background literature and resources related to the topic.
• Check the grammar, punctuation, and syntax of your written work.
• Enhance the vocabulary of your writing and submitted assessment.
• Manage the word count of the assessment.

You are not permitted to use Generative AI technology to:

• Summarise the Rosenhan paper.
• Relate the Rosenhan paper to policies and practices regarding employee mental health. 

These restrictions are in place because Gen AI is trained on broad datasets but lacks the ability to tailor summaries precisely to industry-specific contexts. A consultancy job requires nuanced framing—connecting Rosenhan’s findings to a company's objectives, workplace culture, or relevant policies. Gen AI may provide a general summary but struggle to align it with the particular needs of a consulting engagement. Also, Gen AI reflects dominant discourses but does not independently assess evolving workplace policies or practices. Rosenhan’s work is rooted in critiques of psychiatric labeling, which requires a careful application to contemporary workplace mental health strategies. Gen AI will most likely struggle to distinguish between helpful reforms and tokenistic measures when it comes to making real world recommendations for a workplace.

The full marking criteria will be presented in a detailed marking rubric available on the Moodle site. The rubric is based on the three sections of the assignment, each aligning with the learning verbs present, relate, and elaborate, respectively.

In Section 1, you will be assessed on how well you present a structured summary of the Rosenhan paper, explaining its key findings, grounding in critical social psychology, and impact on mainstream psychology. This section is designed to assess your ability to meet Learning Outcome 3: Evaluate social psychological concepts, research, and theories from a critical perspective. This section is weighted 10% of the assignment mark.

In Section 2, you will be assessed on how well you relate the Rosenhan paper to one key mainstream psychological concept embedded in the briefing document (provided on Moodle) and one key critical social psychological concept that offers a critique of that mainstream concept. This requires clearly articulating a mainstream psychological concept from the briefing document that is critiqued by the Rosenhan paper, as well as the critical social psychological concept that forms the basis of that critique. This section is designed to assess your ability to meet Learning Outcome 1: Articulate social and critical psychology concepts from both mainstream and diverse perspectives, and is weighted 40% of the assignment mark.

In Section 3, you will be assessed on how well you elaborate on the significance of both the Rosenhan study and the critical social psychological concept you have related it to by providing an informed recommendation for the organisation’s mental health policy. The recommendation should focus on promoting positive mental health within the organisation and ensuring psychological safety in the workplace. It should also contribute something new to the priority areas already covered in the briefing document. This section is designed to assess your ability to meet Learning Outcome 3 and is weighted 50% of the assignment mark.

Critical social psychology is an area of the discipline of psychology which offers us the opportunity to adopt a more subjective, reflexive relationship to theory and practice. In critical social psychology the objective, neutral stance of the psychologist is rejected in favour of a subjective, partisan stance. Assessment Two offers you an opportunity to develop or re-engage with those reflexive skills through the practice of diary keeping. Reflexivity is different from reflectivity. Reflective means thinking about one’s own thoughts, feelings and actions. Reflexive means thinking about one’s own thoughts, feelings and actions through the eyes of another. For this assessment, you will engage with reflexivity through the eyes of the various writers whose work we will discuss during the unit and through the perspectives of various interests groups impacted by the issues we cover.

For the first eight teaching weeks, you should maintain a weekly learning diary. The diary will consist of two sections. In the first section, you should summarize what you have learned each week (e.g., Week 1), including key ideas from teaching videos, required or suggested readings, and topics discussed during the online tutorial. This summary should be concise and the recommendation is that it should not exceed 125 words.

The second section will contain your critical reflections on the material, focusing on what you have learned about the role of sociocultural factors in psychology. You should examine how your understanding of social support and social power has either been reinforced or changed during the week, as well as identify any dilemmas or inconsistencies in psychology’s approach to particular social issues. Approach this task as an opportunity to evaluate your own thoughts, feelings, and actions through the lens of the different perspectives covered that week. The recommendation is that this section should not exceed 275 words.

Once you have completed eight weeks of diary entries (one entry per week for the first eight teaching weeks), you will select the two entries that best meet the marking criteria and submit these two entries in a single document. The remaining six entries should be included as an appendix in that same document but will not be assessed. The total word count for the assessment must not exceed 800 words (excluding the appendix).

• Text should be word-processed and follow APA 7 style for layout.
• Use Arial font and double spacing.
• You must include a reference section at the end of the assessment. Referencing and citations should be in APA 7 format.

Use of Generative AI

Level of GenAI use allowed: Level 3: You may use Al to assist with specific tasks such as drafting text, refining and evaluating your work. You must critically evaluate and modify any Al-generated content you use.

For this assessment, you may elect to use Generative AI to help you:

• Check the grammar, punctuation, and syntax of your written work.
• Enhance the vocabulary of your writing and submitted assessment.
• Manage the word count of the assessment.

You are not permitted to use Generative AI technology to:

• Summarise the content of a teaching week for your diary entry.
• Draw out the sociocultural context of a piece of mainstream psychological theory.
• Analyse the vested interests behind that mainstream psychological theory or practice.

These restrictions are in place because Gen AI generates responses based on patterns in text but lacks personal experience or the ability to make subjective interpretations. A diary entry requires individual reflexivity and a subjective engagement with nuanced ideas. This is something AI cannot authentically replicate. When summarising content related to culture and power, AI may reproduce dominant narratives rather than critically interrogate them. This means Gen AI cannot sufficiently capture the deeper ideological tensions that shape discussions of social power and mainstream institutions.

The full marking criteria will be presented in a detailed marking rubric available on the Moodle site. The rubric is based on three learning verbs: review, interrogate and analyse.

In section 1 of your diary entry, you will be assessed on how well you review that teaching week through you providing a summarised overview of key mainstream psychological content relevant to that week. This is designed to assess your ability to meet Learning Outcome 2: Identify the sociocultural contexts that influence individual differences in beliefs, values, and behaviour and is weighted 30% of the assignment mark.

In section 2 of your diary entry you will be assessed on how well you both interrogate a sociocultural perpsective and analyse vested interests. The first part is about how well you interrogate the social and cultural context of a key piece of mainstream psychological theory or practice and relates to Learning Outcome 2 and is weighted 40% of the assignment mark.  The second part is about how well you analyse the vested interests served by that piece of theory or practice. This relates to the Learning Outcome 4: Explain how privilege, power, and oppression affects prejudice, discrimination, and inequity and is weighted 30% of the assignment mark.

Essay writing is a foundational skill for critical social commentators. It provides a powerful medium to express and develop your critical thinking on important social issues. Throughout history, influential essayists have been catalysts for progressive social change—combining literary craft with analytical insight to challenge prevailing norms and inspire new ways of thinking. The essays of Gore Vidal contributed to the peace movement, James Baldwin’s writings shaped the Black civil rights movement, Simone de Beauvoir’s work supported the women’s movement, and Vic Finkelstein’s essays transformed public understanding of disability. Take inspiration from this tradition—writing an essay is not something to be feared, but an opportunity to engage in meaningful critique and communication.

As you build your skills, essay writing can help you discover your academic voice — a distinctive mode of argument that aligns with academic conventions while reflecting your personal experiences, perspective, and intellectual disposition. The expectations for this task include:

• Citing evidence to support your claims.
• Referencing literature appropriately using citations.
• Structuring your essay clearly with an introduction, body, and conclusion (do not include an abstract).
• Anticipating and addressing counterarguments to strengthen your position.

Your voice will emerge most strongly when you express your own ideas directly. Avoid over-reliance on long quotations, excessive paraphrasing, or Generative AI tools. These can flatten your style and limit your opportunity to grow as a writer. Remember, many AI-generated texts reflect formulaic patterns that don’t support the development of a nuanced, personal academic voice. For instance, AI tends to insert unnecessary "summary sections". Such sections are seen by experienced writers as poor practice because they often interrupt the flow of your argument, might give your prose a mechanical feel, and can sap the intellectual energy that makes writing compelling and persuasive.

This assignment changes each term the unit is delivered and in this term your task for this assignment is to undertake a comprehensive examination of the role of critical disability studies on the discipline of psychology. The task involves critically evaluating how psychological theories or practices in the past have reinforced and perpetuated disablism.

Here is a breakdown of what this essay task entails:

• Disablism: You should focus on the distinction between the medical and social models of disability. 
• Critical Analysis: You should approach the topic critically. This means you should engage in analysis rather than description and your analysis should be in-depth, focusing on of how psychology, in the past, has helped to reinforce ableist norms. This might involve discussing instances where disabled people’s lives and experiences have been pathologized or ignored within psychology. You can use theories from critical social psychology and social psychology to help you with this analysis.
• Historical Perspectives:  You should examine the historical context, including key psychological theories or practices that relate directly to the topic of disability. This may include influential figures, or key approaches that have played an important role in shaping the discipline of psychology and what it has said about disability. 
• Consequences and Implications:  You should consider some real-world consequences and implications of ableism in psychology. You can, for example, consider how mainstream psychology may have contributed to discrimination, stigma, or to limiting our understanding of disabled people’s lives.
• Analysis of Power: consider how problematic work has remained current for as long as it did and how the legacy of that work might have an ongoing negative impact. You should use theories and concepts on social power from critical social psychology or social psychology here.  

In essence, this essay task challenges you to engage in a thoughtful and critical examination of the historical roots of ableism in psychology and its implications for our understanding of disability and impairment. It encourages you to question the prevailing norms and biases in the field and to persuasively challenge mainstream psychology to play a greater role in promoting a more inclusive and equitable perspective on disabled peoples’ lives.

Important Information:

• The length of the assessment must not exceed 1200 words.
• Text should be word-processed and follow APA 7 style for layout.
• Use Arial font and double spacing.
• You must include a reference section at the end of the assessment. Referencing and citations should be in APA 7 format.

Use of Generative AI:

Level of GenAI use allowed: Level 3: You may use Al to assist with specific tasks such as drafting text, refining and evaluating your work. You must critically evaluate and modify any Al-generated content you use.

For this assessment, you may elect to use Generative AI to help you:

• Supplement teaching resources provided on the unit to help you further understand the concepts discussed (such as those related to the topic) as well as finding and understanding background literature and resources related to the topic.
• Check the grammar, punctuation, and syntax of your written work.
• Enhance the vocabulary of your writing and submitted assessment.
• Manage the word count of the assessment.

You are not permitted to use Generative AI technology to help you:

• Identify the specific critiques of mainstream psychology.
• Articulate the importance of critical disability studies.
• Develop and present your critical reflections on mainstream psychological approaches to disability.
• Select and articulate the mechanisms of social power that impact the trajectory of change in the discipline of psychology.

The reason for these restrictions is that Gen AI is trained on large datasets that often reflect mainstream perspectives. Both critical social psychology and critical disability studies challenge those mainstream perspectives and question entrenched biases in academia, policy, and practice. Gen AI is not designed to push beyond conventional paradigms in a way that aligns with the radical shifts advocated by critical disability studies and critical social psychology. Additionally, an analysis of social power requires an understanding of historical context, shifts in ideological stances, and changes in the strategic interests of social institutions. These are factors that Gen AI cannot interpret dynamically for the purpose of constructing a persuasive argument.

The full marking criteria will be outlined in a detailed rubric available on the Moodle site. The rubric is structured around the three sections of the assignment: introduction, main body, and conclusion. The assessment is based on four key learning verbs: identify, articulate, evaluate, and explain.

In the introduction, you will be assessed on how effectively you identify both historical and contemporary psychological approaches to disability, as well as the development of critical disability studies as a distinct disciplinary space. This section is designed to evaluate your ability to meet Learning Outcome 2: Identify the sociocultural contexts that influence individual differences in beliefs, values, and behavior. It is weighted 25% of the assignment mark.

In the main body, you have two distinct areas of assessment.

First, you will be evaluated on how well you articulate the critiques that critical disability studies has made against mainstream psychology. This aligns with Learning Outcome 1: Articulate social and critical psychology concepts from both mainstream and diverse perspectives and is weighted 10% of the assignment mark.

Second, you will be assessed on how well you evaluate the impact—whether actual or potential—of these critiques on mainstream psychology’s approach to disability. This aligns with Learning Outcome 3: Evaluate social psychological concepts, research, and theories from a critical perspective and is weighted 25% of the assignment mark.

In the conclusion, you will be assessed on how well you explain the trajectory and pace of change in mainstream psychology’s approach to disability. This section evaluates your ability to meet Learning Outcome 4: Explain how privilege, power, and oppression affect prejudice, discrimination, and inequity and is weighted 40% of the assignment mark.