Female Labor Force Participation,Status Integration and Suicide, 1950–1969

ABSTRACT: Using Census data covering the 29 year period starting in 1950 this, study tests the hypothesis that (1) female labor force participation may result in more married women committing suicide due to the strain of household and outside working responsibilities and that (2) female labor force participation may also be associated with higher rates of male suicide due to the fact that it represents apparent failure of the husband as sole breadwinner ( Stack, 1978 ). Results show that during the 1950's male suicide was not associated with growth in the female labor force, but female suicide was. During the 1960s male suicide was negatively associated with female labor force participation, but the opposite was true for females. It is argued that working women represented a weakening of norms concerning sex roles. Apparently as more and more women entered the labor force, role conflict did ensue, but contrary to the above hypothesis it only increased female suicide potential. These results are discussed in terms of different normative sex role contexts of the 1950s and the 1960s.     

Chlordiazepoxide and resistance to punishment

Rats were given intermittent electric foot-shock during food-rewarded alley training. In the test phase, food and shock were given on every trial. These animals persisted in running down the alley in the test phase compared to those without prior shock experience. The effects of chlordiazepoxide (CDP) on this learned resistance to punishment were examined using a long and short interval between trials. It was found that CDP abolished the effect at a long inter-trial interval, but left it unaltered if the interval was short. The results match those found previously with an analogous effect using non-reward. It is suggested that the effects of punishment and non-reward may be mediated by a common process, and that the benzodiazepines may act on this process.     

Dimensions of Black Suicide: A Theoretical Model

ABSTRACT: This paper has two purposes: (1) to develop a theoretical model of suicide, based on the previous work of Henry and Short, and (2) to apply that model in the study of black suicides in Orleans Parish, Louisiana. In so doing, we are focusing on suicide among a traditionally low-status, low-suicide population group, one which Henry and Short cited in support of the positive relationship between status and suicide. The generality of the theory is thus examined in this and other ways. The theory of “external restraints” is only weakly sustained by this analysis. More adequate testing of the theory must await further data, with careful attention to the subjective aspects of hypothesized structural relationships.