Predicting Suicide Attempts among Treatment‐Seeking Male Alcoholics: An Exploratory Study

Documented risk factors for suicide among alcohol‐dependent patients are sensitive but insufficiently specific to effectively identify individuals who are prone to future suicide attempt. As a first step to assess factors not previously considered, this pilot study involved a group of male alcohol‐dependent patients (N = 175) coming to detoxification to examine the potential utility of adverse childhood experiences (ACE) along with other documented events to discriminate individuals with a history of attempted suicide from their detoxifying peers. Family health history questionnaires were used to evaluate their ACEs. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was applied to examine the predictive power of ACEs, alone or in combination with documented risk factors, to lifetime history of attempted suicide. Among our participants, 48 (27.4%) had a history of a suicide attempt and 156 (89.1%) reported at least one out of the nine categories of ACEs. Modeling by ROC analysis, we found that a cutoff of four or more ACEs plus a history of personal violence achieved the best predictive power to a history of any suicide attempt, producing a sensitivity of 0.7, specificity of 0.81, and area under curve of 0.75. A prospective study to replicate and extend our findings is necessary.     

朝拜佛母洞

(一)台怀南下十里余,右转经过白云寺,缓步西行,就踏上了去佛母洞的道路。五台山灵迹颇多,关于佛母洞的传说,也有不少。据说,明朝嘉靖年间,一位法号道方的僧家,单身行脚,杖锡登临,来五台朝圣。当他行至佛母洞时,已是夜半时分。正在他感到分辨不清道路之际,忽见灯火通明,仔细看时,眼前是一处庄严殊胜的梵宫古刹,众多比丘手擎供佛灯火,出出进进,仿佛正在绕佛念诵。道方见这景象,举步再行,又见这里原是一处溶岩洞室,道方紧随众比丘入内,洞中灯火辉煌,玉像庄严,俨然一个天造地设的僧家道场。他被这般情景吸引,又进里许,耳畔忽然响起澎湃的波涛声,…     

When My Object Becomes Me: The Mere Ownership of an Object Elevates Domain‐Specific Self‐Efficacy

Past research on the mere ownership effect has shown that when people own an object, they perceive the owned objects more favorably than the comparable non‐owned objects. The present research extends this idea, showing that when people own an object functional to the self, they perceive an increase in their self‐efficacy. Three studies were conducted to demonstrate this new form of the mere ownership effect. In Study 1, participants reported an increase in their knowledge level by the mere ownership of reading materials (a reading package in Study 1a, and lecture notes in Study 1b). In Study 2, participants reported an increase in their resilience to sleepiness by merely owning a piece of chocolate that purportedly had a sleepiness‐combating function. In Study 3, participants who merely owned a flower essence that is claimed to boost creativity reported having higher creativity efficacy. The findings provided insights on how associations with objects alter one's self‐perception.     

化解信仰缺失危机的积极对策

清末民初至"文化大革命"特殊历史时期的社会动荡和极端思潮酿成我国社会信仰缺失的危机,一度造成社会道德衰败、诚信缺失、拜金主义严重、宗教问题凸显、社会和谐稳定难以维持等社会问题。随着改革开放以来宗教信仰自由政策的落实,中国社会向信仰常态回归已成趋势。因此,顺应全球化进程,发挥社会宗教信仰包容融合的特别优势,因势利导促成各宗教和合共生的"宗教共同体",并以此主动化解信仰危机和相关的社会问题,不失为可供选择的积极对策。