Self-Attitudes and Suicidal Behavior

Findings are reported concerning the hypothesized relationship between adoption of suicidal responses (ideation, threats, attempts) and antecedent negative self-attitudes. Data were provided by junior high school student (N = 3,148) responses to questionnaires administered three times at annual intervals. Antecedent negative self-attitudes were measured by a seven-item self-derogation scale at the first testing. Adoption of suicidal responses was indicated by earlier denial and subsequent affirmation of the response (self-reports). Findings indicate that suicidal behaviors are responses (whether or not subsequently continued) to experiences of negative self-attitudes in the more recent past. However, whether or not suicidal behaviors are related to self-derogating feelings in the more remote past can be seen as a function of a sex-social-class-mode of suicidal response interaction.     

Stereotypes,Prejudice, and the Taxonomy of the Implicit Social Mind1

How do cognition and affect interact to produce action? Research in intergroup psychology illuminates this question by investigating the relationship between stereotypes and prejudices about social groups. Yet it is now clear that many social attitudes are implicit (roughly, nonconscious or involuntary). This raises the question: how does the distinction between cognition and affect apply to implicit mental states? An influential view—roughly analogous to a Humean theory of action—is that “implicit stereotypes” and “implicit prejudices” constitute two separate constructs, reflecting different mental processes and neural systems. On this basis, some have also argued that interventions to reduce discrimination should combat implicit stereotypes and prejudices separately. We propose an alternative (anti‐Humean) framework. We argue that all putative implicit stereotypes are affect‐laden and all putative implicit prejudices are “semantic,” that is, they stand in co‐activating associations with concepts and beliefs. Implicit biases, therefore, consist in “clusters” of semantic‐affective associations, which differ in degree, rather than kind. This framework captures the psychological structure of implicit bias, promises to improve the power of indirect measures to predict behavior, and points toward the design of more effective interventions to combat discrimination.     

Grounding at a distance

Philosophical Studies - What distinguishes causation from grounding? One suggestion is that causation, but not grounding, occurs over time. Recently, however, counterexamples to this simple...