Assessing and Managing Risk With Suicidal Individuals

The University of Washington Risk Assessment Protocol (UWRAP) and Risk Assessment and Management Protocol (UWRAMP) have been used in numerous clinical trials treating high-risk suicidal individuals over several years. These protocols structure assessors and treatment providers to provide a thorough suicide risk assessment, review standards of care recommendations for action, and allow for subsequent documentation of information gathered and actions taken. As such, it is a resource for providers treating high-risk populations across multiple contexts (e.g., primary care, outpatient psychotherapy, emergency department). This article describes both the UWRAP and UWRAMP. Taken together, these assessment and risk management tools include (a) assessment questions for gathering information to determine the level of risk, (b) action steps that can be taken to ensure safety, and (c) a companion therapist note where providers document their assessment and actions.     

Attitudes toward Self in Suicidal Individuals*

ABSTRACT: Attitudes toward the self and other people were gathered from suicidal, psychosomatic, and normal hospitalized patients via semantic differential ratings. The data were analyzed by comparing the ratings of “Myself” and “Other People” (and their divergencies) made by the three groups of subjects on the Evaluative, Activity, and Potency factors of the semantic differential. It was found that the suicidal individuals had the (a) lowest self-appraisal, (b) highest other appraisal, and (c) greatest self-other divergency among the three groups. The effect was found to be greatest on the Potency factor giving rise to the speculations that feelings of impotency may be extremely critical for the production of suicidal activity.     

Assessing Creative Persons*

ABSTRACT Personality assessment, in contrast to psychodiagnosis, psychological testing, and the measurement of individual differences, attempts to delineate the person as a whole through the use of a multiplicity of procedures and emphasizes the more favorable and positive aspects of personality and its potentialities for effective functioning. Developed during World War II, the method has been most extensively used by the Institute of Personality Assessment and Research, University of California. Berkeley, in its studies of highly creative persons. In these researches the characteristics of such persons have been effectively revealed, e.g., through the use of life history interviews, personality trait ratings, an adjective check list, and the Q-sort method, and their level of creativeness predicted by multiple regression analyses.     

论时间洞察力

时间洞察力既是能力特质也是动力特质,是个体对时间的认知、体验和行动(或行动倾向)的人格特质,它可以区分为过去时间洞察力、现在时间洞察力、未来时间洞察力,也可以区分为特质时间洞察力和状态时间洞察力。时间洞察力是决定个人事业与人生成功的关键因素。我们已开始用多维度-多方法对时间洞察力开展深入的研究。     

Feasibility of Assessing Suicide Ideation and History of Suicidal Behavior in Rural Communities

Suicide in rural areas has not received significant attention in the research literature to this point, although suicide rates are higher among adults and older adults in rural areas than in urban areas. The aims of the study were as follows: (1) establish the feasibility of assessing suicide ideation and history of suicidal behavior; (2) determine preliminary estimates of the prevalence of suicide ideation, and history of suicide attempts; and (3) examine the effectiveness and acceptability of safety and referral plans for individuals whose responses indicated elevated suicide risk, in rural communities with limited access to referral care. Participants were 96 adults aged 40 to 85 years old (M  =  57.34, SD  = 11.47) residing in West Texas. Our results indicate that 26% of participants endorsed a lifetime history of suicide ideation and/or suicide attempt(s) and 12.5% reported suicide ideation in the past year. In addition, 93.4% of participants reported that participation in our suicide‐focused study was an excellent or good experience. Results suggest that individuals in rural communities are willing to talk about suicide, found the experience helpful, and were satisfied with the referral process.     

Adolescent Multiphasic Personality Inventory and Its Utility in Assessing Suicidal and Violent Adolescents

Adolescent Multiphasic Personality Inventory profiles of inpatient adolescents were examined to identify differences between suicidal (danger to self, n = 145) and violent (danger to others, n = 36) adolescents. Participants were 181 inpatients (12–17 years old, mean age, 14.7 years) admitted to an adolescent psychiatric unit of a southern California county hospital. Results indicate that the suicide group had significantly higher scores than the violent group on five scales (Hypochondriasis, Psychasthenia, Paranoia, Schizophrenia, and Social Introversion). These scales, singly or in combination, have been found to be indicative of psychotic process. This suggests the presence of psychotic process in suicidal, but not violent, adolescents.     

Time Perspective and Organisational Involvement

Une étude comparative des horizons temporels de deux groupes appariés de militants appartenant à des organisations contrastées sur le plan idéologique (Parti Communiste et Union Féderale des Consommateurs), montre qu'il existe une difference suivant l'appartenance. L'hypothèse étant que le choix par le sujet d'un groupe d'appartenance est fonction de l'articulation entre son horizon temporel et les temporalités sociales véhiculées par le groupe.
This paper analyses the differential time perspectives held by people belonging to organisations with different ideological outlooks (Communist Party members and members of a consumers' union). The two groups are found to differ significantly in their time perspectives. The paper advances the hypothesis that organisational choice is a function of the match between a person's time perspective and the one held by members of the organisation.     

时间洞察力的理论研究

对时间洞察力的理论研究进行了总结和回顾,把时间洞察力的观点归纳为八个方面：时间洞察力的发展观、性别观、学业观、生活观、文化观、健康观、人格观及精神病理学观点。认为时间洞察力研究应该把重点放在理论构建和因果关系的探讨上。     

时间洞察力对跨期选择偏好的预测

利用津巴多时间洞察力问卷,采用跨期选择经典范式,考察“现在享乐型”和“未来定向型”两类时间洞察力个体在跨期选择上的偏好,从人格特质角度来探究跨期选择的认知机制。结果发现：(1)现在享乐定向组的延迟折扣率显著高于未来定向组;(2)未来定向组在时间洞察力量表“未来维度”得分与延迟折扣率显著负相关。这说明时间洞察力对个体延迟折扣率具有预测作用,支持了跨期选择的时间感知基础模型。     

Connection between Suicidal Ideation,Life Meaning,and Leisure Time Activities

This study is an examination of the links between adolescent suicidal ideation, life meaning, and the ways they spend their leisure time. The sample consisted of 450 students aged 15–18. Findings showed a significant negative correlation between suicidal ideation and sense of life meaning, encompassing factors such as age and gender. Adolescents with involvement in social activities demonstrated lower levels of suicidal ideation (total score), and lower levels of depression and anxiety, than the other two groups. The study discusses the research and practical implications of these findings. The findings suggest the possibility of establishing prevention, intervention, and therapy programs for adolescents based on life meaning.     

Positive Time: Balanced Time Perspective and Positive Orientation

The aim of the research presented in this article is to investigate the relationship between positive orientation and time perspective as outlined by Zimbardo and Boyd (J Pers Soc Psychol 77:1271–1288, 1999) and extended by an additional form of concentration on the present. The Polish version of the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory was used. A third type of present time perspective, namely active concentration on the present, was measured by the Carpe Diem Scale. One hundred and eighty five Polish people (non-students) participated in a survey to which a canonical-correlation analysis and a cluster analysis were applied. Positive orientation was correlated with a balanced temporal profile comprising a strong positive past orientation, moderate concentration on the future, poor fatalistic time perspective, poor concentration on the negative past and moderate active concentration on the present. Whereas a positive orientation is based on a general positive attitude towards life and self, a balanced time perspective reflects a general positive attitude towards time, in which an active concentration on the present plays an important role.     

Banality Reinvestigated: A Computer-Based Content Analysis of Suicidal and Forced Death Documents*

Suicide and simulated notes and forced-death documents were processed on the Harvard III Psycho-Sociological Dictionary. For each text, frequencies of related words were generated; these were contrasted with each other and with baseline data using z scores. The results indicated that the suicidal groups were more “deviant.” Other findings are concreteness and constriction of focus for suicides—a pattern suggesting denial just prior to the deed. The forced-death group seemed to be more meaningfully in contact with life and aware of responsibility. The simulated group appeared to be fabricating a popular stereotype rather than exhibiting empathy. Implications were discussed.     

Time to read semantically related sentences*

Ss read sentences specifying relations among concepts, with the sentences related to each other in different hierarchical structures. In the case where sentences had implicative relationships, time to read sentences low in the hierarchy was less if sentences higher in the hierarchy had been read previously, and sentences inconsistent with expectations based on earlier items took longer. However, when structural relations did not involve implication about content, time to read the sentences was not very different regardless of whether related sentences had been read previously.     

Time Perspective: Temporal Extension,Time Estimation,and Impulsivity

It has been proposed that time perspective is an important variable that can, in part, explain the differences between people in terms of the development of self-control. One corollary of this position is that time perspective is somehow related to systematic biases in the way people perceive the passage of time. Such a bias may or may not be augmented by an association between time perspective and impulsivity. Two studies were conducted using measures of temporal extension, time estimation, and impulsivity. In general, no consistent effects were found. Neither time perspective nor impulsivity was related to any characteristic pattern of errors. In the second study, time perspective (mediated by age) was associated with predicting very brief time estimation scores, but not longer time estimation periods. It was concluded that whatever the mechanism might be that underlies the purported effect between time perspective and self-control, it is not related to a differential ability to perceive time moving more or less quickly.