The epidemiology of suicide and attempted suicide

Since more than one century suicides have been registered in national statistics of death causes. They thus furnish one of the few parameters of psychiatrically relevant behaviour by means of which trends, cohort, age-group and period effects can be studied over longer periods. Since the second half of last century, the suicide rates for Swiss males--similar to those found in England and Wales--show a decrease in consecutive birth cohorts up to males born in the decade 1930-1940, and a continued decline in the total trend until about World War II. From then on the suicide rates of males in consecutive birth cohorts have been slowly increasing in the majority of European and North American countries--but not so in Sweden. Opposite to this, the predominantly low rates for females display little change. Further to the considerable differences between nations and the predominance of suicides committed by females in some Asian countries and Cuba, the changes indicate the significance of cultural and economic environmental factors. Typical period effects are mainly the result of changes in conception and conditions of life. In attempted suicide they proceed in a more sensitive and more rapid way and are about ten times higher. Such a period effect showing increases by about 300% in younger age-groups followed by a decline, attaining its peak about 1976, was ascertained in large cities of the Federal Republic of Germany. By the example of the effects of a television serial, the study of causal processes turning collective environmental factors into individual suicidal behaviour, proved that regularities are effective in learning by a process of modelling. Besides, the epidemiological data give essential hints how to treat suicidal behaviour.     

HIV infection: trauma and coping with trauma

The initial results of a German-Swedish research project demonstrate the at times active-resistant and at times passive-resigned approaches of AIDS patients toward their illness.     

Threshold tracking for assessment of long-term adaptation and sensitization in pain perception

To assess temporal variations in the perception of "phasic" heat pain stimuli a psychophysical tracking procedure was developed that enables repeated assessment of the pain threshold at short intervals. This "double-tracking" procedure produces two tracking curves simultaneously, one that approaches the pain threshold gradually from above, the other from below. The threshold for phasic heat pain was measured in 80 tracking trials with stimuli at temperatures near the pain threshold. Concurrently, the threshold for "tonic" heat pain was determined after every 20 tracking trials with a stimulus adjustment procedure. Eleven healthy subjects (age: 26.4 yr. +/- 6.0) participated in 2 sessions each. Phasic stimulation near the pain threshold did not produce any trends in either of the two threshold measures. Hence there was no long-term adaptation or sensitization. However, there were random variations (random walks) in the tracking curves, which we interpret as resulting from a stochastic relationship between stimulus and sensation. In agreement with other reports, discrimination seemed to be better at painful than at nonpainful temperatures.     

Decision time and movement time in depression: differential effects of practice before and after clinical improvement

Choice reaction time involves, at least two components of response latency, decision time and movement time. Studies of choice reaction time usually provide values of these two components averaged over a given number of trials. The aim of the present study of depressed subjects was to investigate changes across practice on Decision Time (DT) and Movement Time (MT) before and after clinical improvement. 19 depressed subjects were given two sessions of 50 trials each, one before treatment (Di) and one after recovery (Df). Decision time and movement time exhibited quite different patterns. Decision time significantly decreased with clinical improvement. No significant variation across trials was found, in either session. Movement time values varied across trials but the variations observed on Di and Df were significantly different, whereas before treatment latencies recorded at the end of the session were greater than those scored at the start, the contrary was observed after clinical recovery. No significant difference was found between values of movement time scored at the start of the two sessions.     

Common problems and coping strategies II: Findings with adolescent suicide attempters

This study investigated the most common precipitants of adolescent suicide attempts and the strategies used to cope with such problems. Adolescent suicide attempters were compared with both distressed and nondistressed nonsuicidal adolescents on problems reported and coping strategies utilized. All three groups reported four problems as occurring most frequently: school, parents, friends, or boyfriend/girlfriend. The suicide attempters and distressed controls reported problems with parents more frequently than did nondistressed controls, while this latter group reported problems at school more frequently than did suicide attempters or distressed controls. Suicide attempters used social withdrawal, problem solving, and emotional regulation more than did nondistressed controls, but not more frequently than distressed controls. Distressed controls used wishful thinking and resignation more than did suicide atempters. Results are discussed in terms of the similarities between suicide attempters and nonsuicidal distressed adolescents and the need to more closely investigate specific subgroups of suicide attempters.     

On the logic of causally necessary and sufficient conditions: Towards a theory of motive-explanations of human actions

Research carried out under the auspices of the Bank of Sweden. Tercentenary Foundation project RJ 86/183: Basic Concepts of Procedural Law in the Light of Present-Day Philosophy of Language and Linguistics.     

Reading long words embedded in sentences: informativeness of word halves affects eye movements

The possibility was explored that the informativeness of a specific region within a word can influence eye movements during reading. In Experiment 1, words containing identifying information either toward the beginning or toward the end were displayed asymmetrically around the point of fixation so that the reader was initially presented with either the informative or noninformative zone. Words were read with shorter summed initial fixation time when the reading was started from the informative zone. In Experiments 2 and 3, the target words were presented in sentences that were to be comprehended. More attention was given to the informative endings of words than to redundant endings. The latter were also skipped more often. The duration of the first fixation was not affected by information distribution within the word, whereas the second fixation duration was. The results of these experiments lend good support to the hypothesis of immediate lexical control over fixation behavior and to the notion of a convenient viewing position.     

Effects of shifts in goal origin on goal acceptance and attainment

Current models of goal setting often fail to consider the potential negative effects of goal programs. Control over goal difficulty levels may be an important source of personal control in the workplace and psychological reactance may result from a shift in control over the setting of goals. The present experiment examined the effects of initial goal origin (assigned or self-set) and shifted goal origin (shifted or not shifted) on goal acceptance and attainment over two trial blocks of a verbal task. Several hypotheses based on psychological reactance theory were tested in a laboratory experiment with 160 college undergraduates. Overall analyses revealed significant interactions for goal acceptance and goal attainment over trial blocks. Simple effect analyses isolated this interaction for both dependent variables in a disordinal crossover pattern for the shifted origin groups over trial blocks, as expected. The discussion focuses on fitting these results into the current program guiding goal-setting research and on suggesting future avenues of research. Some implications for the application of goal setting are also discussed.     

Effects of gender roles and self perceptions on affective reactions to horror films

Responses to graphic horror films have been shown to be modified by a number of personality variables, and in particular, by gender-specific rules for social conduct. In earlier horror research it has been assumed that gender-specific responses are largely determined by biological gender. More recent research has focused on psychological patterns of gender identity that often transcend biological gender lines. This investigation sought clarification by examining the impact of individuals' self-perceived gender role and other personality characteristics on affective responses to horror. Subjects' perceptions of how same- and opposite-gender peers would respond to such materials were also assessed. Consistent with theoretical expectations, the findings revealed strong effects on the estimation of opposite-gender target's reactions as a function of both the rater's gender role characteristics and biological gender. Other personality factors were found to influence responses to horror only marginally, however. The results are discussed in terms of the gender role socialization model of affect.