LANGER AND RODIN (1976)
Choice and Personal Responsibility in Older
People
CONTEXT
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Researchers conducted research on choice, selfdetermination, and health.
They found that people would take greater risks
when they perceived more choice
 Langer looked at how choice could reduce stress for
surgical patients.
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Interested in whether decline in abilities as we
age is due to physiological reasons or a lack of
choice in the environment.
AIM
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To investigate whether giving greater choice and
personal responsibility to residents of a
residential home has a positive effect.
PROCEDURE- SAMPLE
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91 residents on 2 floors of a residential home.
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Floors had little contact.
Quasi-experimental design- participants were the residents
of each floor. They were not assigned to a floor. The groups
were not matched.
Experimental group: Floor 4. 39 women, 8 men.
Control group: Floor 2. 35 women, 9 men.
Age range: 65-90yrs.
PROCEDURE-METHOD
Field experiment- carried out in a residential
home.
 Both groups called to a residents meeting by the
hospital director. Given a plant and told of
regular film screenings and a new complaints
procedure.
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PROCEDURE- METHOD CONT.
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Experimental group:
Given a choice of plant and the options of being
responsible for it’s care.
 Told they could rearrange the furniture.
 Allowed to choose which films are screened.
 Complaints: Told it was their responsibility to make
the home as they wanted it.
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PROCEDURE-METHOD
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Control group:
Given a plant- no choice. Told a nurse would water it
for them.
 Told their rooms had been arranged for them for
maximum comfort.
 Told what films would be shown.
 No mention made of their responsibility to make the
care home as they wanted.
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PROCEDURE- METHOD CONT.
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DV- self-report using a rating scale. (0= none to
8= total).
Happiness
 Activity
 Perceived control over their lives.
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Tested one week prior to director’s talk and 3
weeks after.
 Nurse giving the questionnaire rated each
resident for alertness on the same scale.
 Nurses also recorded resident behaviour, e.g.
time spent visiting others.
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FINDINGS
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Enhanced choice condition
reported feeling happier and more active, and were
rated as more alert.
 93% rated by nurses to have improved in overall
functioning.
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Control condition
Less happy, active and alert.
 Higher perceived control scores.
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Many residents reported that they did not understand this
question so the contrary finding was disregarded.
21% rated by nurses as having improved in overall
functioning.
CONCLUSIONS
Welfare of elderly in residential homes strongly
affected by the amount of personal choice and
responsibility they are given.
 Only the way in which intervention was given
differed- both groups received the same things- it
shows that personal choice was the cause of
resident’s improvements.
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EVALUATION- STRENGTHS
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Ecological validity- conducted in a real nursing
home with real residents given a realistic
intervention.
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Applicable to the care environment. Useful.
Good experimental control- both groups had a
very similar experience.
 External and internal reliability- easily
replicable.
 Controlled for bias with double-blind procedurenurses were not aware of the purpose of the
study so unbiased by their own opinions of the
outcome.
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EVALUATION- WEAKNESSES
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Quasi-experiment- participants not randomly
allocated to condition (floor).
Avoided separating residents for ethical reasons.
 Greater sociability in the experimental group who
spent more time visiting friends.
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Generalisability- unrepresentative sample. Few
men. Single residential home may not apply to
other settings.
 Poor validity of the measure- question on
perceived control poorly worded. Residents did
not understand this measure.
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PAST EXAM QUESTIONS
Section A
1.
Outline the procedures of Langer and Rodin’s
(1976) research ‘The effects of choice and enhanced
personal responsibility for the aged: A field
experiment in an institutional setting’. [12] 2011.
Section B
1.
Evaluate the methodology of Langer and Rodin’s
(1976) research ‘The effects of choice and enhanced
personal responsibility for the aged: A field
experiment in an institutional setting’. [12] 2010.
2.
With reference to alternative evidence, critically
assess Gibson & Walk’s (1960) research ‘TheVisual
Cliff’. [12] 2009.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
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Check out this study video on YouTube:
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8oAlPW86aw