Social correlates of youth suicide rates in the United States

The 1980 suicide rate of youths in the United States were found to be associated with three clusters of social variables: social integration, the age structure, and race/region. These associations also were found for older groups, suggesting similarities in the impact of social variables on regional suicide rates.     

Gun control, gun ownership, and suicide prevention

The relationship of the extent of gun ownership and the strictness of gun control laws to suicide and homicide rates in the nine major geographic regions of the United States was explored. Gun ownership, rather than the strictness of gun control laws, was found to be the strongest correlate of the rates of suicide and homicide by guns. Regions with a higher extent of gun ownership had higher rates of suicide and homicide by firearms.     

A subcultural theory of teenage suicide

The concept of "subcultures" is applied to depressed and suicidal teenagers. A case example is presented of a group of five teenagers, three of whom killed themselves. The characteristics of the group members are described in order to pinpoint the defining values of a teenage suicidal subculture.     

Sex differences in the clinical expression of depression

Recent epidemiological studies have established that the lifetime prevalence rate of depression is greater in women than in men. It was the purpose of the present study to investigate the possibility that the true prevalence of male depression is underestimated because males have learned through social rejection that it is inappropriate for them to openly express depressive feelings. Consistent with this notion that men only express depressive symptoms consonant with their traditional male sex role, a discriminant function analysis performed on the self-reported symptomatology of depressed patients revealed that men were more likely to report sex role appropriate symptoms such as work-related problems and somatic concerns. Since other self-presentational concerns may contribute to the sex difference in depression, it is suggested that future research directly examine the ways in which men experience and express symptoms of depression.An earlier draft of this article was presented at the 55th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Baltimore, Maryland, April 1984. This research was supported in part by a grant from the Medical Research Council of Canada, awarded to the first author, and Grant No. 6606-1768-46 from the Health Services and Promotions Branch of Health and Welfare Canada, awarded to the second author. The authors would like to thank Dr. Paul Grof, Kaely Hutchinson, and the staff and patients of Hamilton Psychiatric Hospital for their help and cooperation with the project.     

Positive effect of heterogeneity of difference on thesame-different disparity in letter matching

Subjects judged whether two adjacent letters were identical or different.Different pairs were similar, for example HM, DO, VY, or dissimilar, for example DY, HV,MO. According to the noisy-operator theory, increasing the heterogeneity of difference (external noise) by intermixing similar and dissimilardifferent pairs ought to produce faster but less accurate responses ondifferent trials. As predicted, the tendency to make more false-different responses (i.e., errors on same pairs) decreased when the similar and dissimilardifferent pairs were intermixed rather than presented in separate blocks. The fast-same effect did not change, however, seemingly due to criterion misadjustment. Proctor and Rao apparently found no effect of heterogeneity of difference on RT and errors because they used a less sensitive procedure (between-subjects design; different set of letters for more and less heterogeneous conditions). Consistent with the internal-noise principle, but not with the response-competition model of Eriksen, O’Hara, and Eriksen, the enhanced fast-same effect on blocks containing only similar (vs. dissimilar)different pairs was accompanied by an increased preponderance of false-different errors.     

Correlates of a Taoist orientation

Using rating scales no associations were found between having a Taoist orientation to life, death anxiety, and the perception that one's self is unified (versus fragmented) in a sample of southeastern Asian students (18 women and 12 men).     

Attitudes toward online shopping: a follow-up study

From 2001 to 2005, students showed an increase in the range of purchases made online, and their attitudes toward online shopping became more positive.     

A paper-and-pencil measure of prefrontal subcortical dysfunction

In a large sample of 722 community residents, scores on the Frontal Systems Behavior Scale were significantly associated with age, sex, and education, indicating that scores were higher for men, younger participants, and less educated participants.