Examining the Interpersonal–Psychological Theory of Suicide in an Inpatient Veteran Sample

Suicide among veterans is a pressing public health concern. The interpersonal–psychological theory of suicide proposes that perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness lead to suicidal desire, whereas the acquired capability for suicide leads to suicide attempt in the presence of suicidal desire (Joiner, 2005). Two hypotheses derived from the interpersonal–psychological theory of suicide were tested in 185 veterans (96 women) entering inpatient psychiatric treatment. Burdensomeness and its interaction with belongingness significantly predicted current suicidal ideation. The three‐way interaction between burdensomeness, belongingness, and acquired capability did not significantly predict number of past suicide attempts. Clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Looking at the past through a telescope: adults postdated their earliest childhood memories

ABSTRACT

Our previous studies have consistently shown a telescoping error in children’s dating of earliest childhood memories. Preschool children through adolescents systematically date their earliest memories at older ages, in comparison with the age estimates provided by their parents or by themselves previously. In the current study, we examined the dating of earliest childhood memories in two samples of college adults and collected independent age estimates from their parents. Consistent with our findings with children, adults significantly postdated their earlier memories by approximately 12 months (Study 1) and 6 months (Study 2). The actual age of earliest memories was 2.5 years after adjusted for telescoping errors, 1 year earlier than what is commonly believed at 3.5 years. These findings challenge commonly held theoretical assumptions about childhood amnesia and highlight critical methodological issues in the study of childhood memory.     

Impact of Reading Strategy Use on Girls’ and Boys’ Achievement

We examined the reading strategies of boys and girls and identified those determining academic achievement in 13-year-old Canadian students. Students from each province and one territory (N = 20,094) answered a questionnaire on, among others, reading strategies. T-test results showed that girls use these strategies more regularly compared to boys. Logistical regression indicated that the same strategies determined reading achievement in both groups, namely, making connections with past knowledge, looking at other words in the sentence to grasp the meaning, rereading the more difficult parts, and adapting reading speed.     

THE SECULAR FAITH OF GILLIAN ROSE

Gillian Rose was a philosopher, social theorist, memoirist, and Jewish convert to Christianity who died an untimely death in 1995. She offers a novel account of faith, which grows out of her Hegelian philosophical background inflected by her reading of Kierkegaard and her rediscovered Jewish heritage. For Rose, faith is a mode of social practice. Rose's conception of faith is here reconstructed by translating her obscure jurisprudential idiom into the language of social practices and norms. The conception of secular faith developed by Rose is shown to have implications for contemporary discussions of ethics and politics. The contemporary relevance of Rose's work is made clear through comparison with recent work by Robert Brandom, Robert Adams, and Patrick Deneen.     

Development and Validation of the Sexist Attitudes Toward Women Stale (SATWS)

Although sexism is now defined as a major social problem, there have been very few empirical studies investigating its correlates and determinants. One primary reason for this is that there are no published sexism scales, and hence it is difficult to assess individual differences in sexism. This article describes the development and validation of a 40-item Sexist Attitudes Toward Women Scale (SATWS). On rational-intuitive grounds, it is hypothesized that sexism toward women has seven components and, accordingly, items were written to reflect these. It is suggested that scales measuring only one of these components (e.g., sex-role stereotype scales and women's liberation movement scales) lack content validity as measures of sexism. On empirical grounds it is argued that the SATW scale also has stronger construct validity as a measure of sexism toward women than other such scales. The SATW scale has high internal consistency reliability for both college students and nonstudent adults and the SATW scale scores are independent of social desirability scores. Relationships to age, sex, and education are presented.