Attitudes toward suicide have been linked to the way health professionals and lay people behave toward suicidal individuals. In some instances negative attitudes toward suicidal persons seem to have contributed to repeated attempts or to suicide completion. This study examines attitudes held by college students toward suicide, explores whether their attitudes are related to their skills at recognizing therapeutic verbal interventions, and seeks to identify personality variables that might predict attitudes toward suicide as well as skills at recognizing therapeutic interventions. Three instruments, the Suicide Opinion Questionnaire (SOQ), the Suicide Intervention Response Inventory (SIRI), and the California Psychological Inventory (CPI), were administered to 215 volunteer undergraduates (122 males and 93 females) from introductory psychology classes. Subjects' modal age range was 18 to 21 years. Forty-five attitudinal items from the SOQ yielded a total favorableness score for each subject; skills at recognizing suicide intervention responses to imaginary suicide callers was rated by a SIRI score from 0 to 25. The first hypothesis, that favorableness in attitudes toward suicide would correlate positively with skills at recognizing facilitative suicide intervention responses, was not supported by test data. The second hypothesis was accepted in that both, favorableness in attitudes toward suicide (SOQ scores) and recognition of faciliative intervention responses (SIRI scores), can be predicted from a personality test. SOQ scores were predicted positively by CPI scales Flexibility, and Achievement via independence, and negatively by Achievement via conformance. SIRI scores were predicted positively by Intellectual efficiency and Dominance, and negatively by Good Impression. The literature identifies flexibility as one of the behaviors of good crisis intervention workers. An implication from this study is that students showing more flexibility and autonomy are likely to show also more favorableness in attitudes toward suicide. Another implication is that students who are more intelligent and quick at making use of their intellectual abilities, who show initiative, and who have a moderate concern about their impression on others, are more likely to recognize intervention responses that may be helpful to suicidal persons.

The present study compares two types of treatments designed to reduce suicidal ideations: social problem-solving therapy and supportive therapy. Social problem-solving therapy is based on research indicating that suicidal individuals have deficits in problem-solving skills in general and in interpersonal problem-solving skills, in particular. Supportive therapy was chosen as a comparative treatment to control for nonspecific effects of problem-solving therapy and to provide an ethical alternative treatment. The results indicated that problem-solving therapy was more effective than supportive therapy for reducing depression and for improving interpersonal problem-solving self-efficacy at posttest. At 3 month follow-up there continued to be differences between the groups in depression, but not in problem-solving self-efficacy. In addition, at follow-up problem-solving therapy was more effective than supportive therapy for reducing hopelessness and loneliness. Although there were no differences between the groups on severity of suicidal ideations, within group analyses revealed that problem-solving therapy significantly reduced severity of ideations over time. The findings suggest that social problem-solving therapy is a more effective treatment than supportive therapy for reducing depression, hopelessness, and loneliness of suicidal individuals. This may be due to social problem-solving deficits being a key problem for suicidal individuals. Although there are several limitations to the study, such as small sample sizes, it provides an example of treatment research with suicidal individuals. Similar studies would be useful to further evaluate empirically-based treatments for suicidal individuals. / Ph. D.

Wu Chi Hang. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 41-49). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / List of Figures --- p.i / List of Tables --- p.ii / Chapter Chapter 1: --- Introduction to the Study --- p.1 / Introduction --- p.1 / The Role of Family Problems --- p.3 / The Mediating Effect of Self-Perception --- p.5 / The Mediating Effect of Beliefs about the World --- p.7 / Combining Self-Perceptions and Social Beliefs as Mediators --- p.11 / Gender Difference in the Mediation Model Interactions --- p.11 / Chapter Chapter 2: --- Method --- p.13 / Sample and Procedures --- p.13 / Instruments --- p.13 / McMaster Family Assessment Device (FAD) --- p.13 / Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) --- p.14 / Depression-Cognition: Cognition Checklist ´ؤ Depression (CCL-D) --- p.14 / Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale --- p.14 / The Social Axioms Survey --- p.14 / Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire (SIQ) --- p.15 / Analysis --- p.16 / Chapter Chapter 3: --- Results --- p.17 / Correlation among Variables --- p.17 / Exploratory Factor Analysis of FAD and Self-Perceptions --- p.18 / Mediation Analysis for Suicidal Ideation --- p.20 / Model Containing both Mediators --- p.24 / Testing Gender Differences in the Model --- p.28 / Chapter Chapter 4: --- Discussion --- p.31 / Family and Suicidal Ideation --- p.31 / Family as a System --- p.32 / The Role of Social Beliefs --- p.34 / A Gender-General Model for Suicidal Ideation --- p.37 / Implications and Further Research --- p.38 / References --- p.40 / Appendix --- p.49

published_or_final_version / Psychology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy