A Survey of Hospital Services for Suicidal Persons

ABSTRACT: A person who threatens or attempts suicide, arriving for treatment at any 1 of 10 hospitals serving a suburban area in the Bay Area of California, will be met with a variety of responses by different kinds of personnel, depending on the hospital to which he comes. In half of the hospitals, he could be subsequently discharged without psychiatric consultation of any kind. Follow-through on any outpatient referral would usually be left up to him. Although a few hospitals attend to the problem of suicidal persons in many important respects, other hospitals pay little attention to these same aspects. Because of the important role of the hospital in the prevention of suicide, it is recommended that the hospital's function in dealing with suicidal patients be better defined, extended, and made more consistent.     

A comparison of four computer-based telephone interviewing methods: Getting answers to sensitive questions

Interactive voice response (IVR) technology presents a new and promising approach by which to collect accurate data on sensitive topics by telephone interviews. In a national survey of 2, 880 households of alcohol and drug consumption, we compared computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) and IVR with two hybrid methods that combine IVR with CATI. The principal hypothesis was that the self-report rates of sensitive behaviors would be higher for the hybrid and IVR methods owing to greater perceived confidentiality than with CATI. All the methods obtained similar sample demographic compositions. Response rates did not differ significantly between the CATI and the hybrid methods; however, the response rate with IVR was significantly lower. The hybrid and IVR methods obtained significantly higher self-report consumption rates for alcohol and marijuana and significantly higher hazardous drinking scores, as measured by the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT).     

The Effect of Advances in Video Game Technology and Content on Aggressive Cognitions,Hostility, and Heart Rate

Two studies were conducted that tested the moderating role of video game graphics quality in the relationship between video game content and aggression-related variables. In both studies, participants played either a violent or nonviolent video game on one of three video game systems with differing technological computing power (which contributes to the realism depicted in these video games). In Study 2, the moderating and mediating role of immersion was also tested. Results showed that video game violence exposure was related to aggressive cognitions and state of hostility. Video game technology did not moderate this relationship. Finally, immersion, as an individual difference variable, did not moderate or mediate this relationship. This suggests that aggressive cognitions and feelings occur independent of how technologically advanced the graphics are and the extent to which one feels as though they are immersed in a violent video game. Implications and future research are discussed.