Suchergebnisse

Consistent with a number of facts from suicide research and an evolutionary view of suicidal behavior, positive ecological (group-level) correlations between contemporary suicide rates and intelligence level have been observed in several geographical (cross-national and within-nation)
studies (e.g., Lester, 1993, 1995, 2003; Voracek, 2004, 2005a, 2005b, 2006a-h, 2007). The present research extended these accounts cross-temporally to a test of the social ecology of U.S. state IQ and suicide rates during the early 20th century. Analysis of historical state suicide rates (1913–24),
along with validated state IQ figures derived from the Army Alpha and Beta Intelligence Test data of Yerkes (1921), showed a clear positive correlation of state IQ with suicide rates (independent of state wealth) across the USA, thus suggesting temporal stability of the effect.

Abstract. This is a comment on the ecological finding of a negative association of national suicide rate and national proportion of people with Type O blood ( Lester, 2004 ). Current knowledge on this topic is reviewed and several problems, limitations, and discrepancies within this research line are noted. Specifically, it is suggested that (1) this association appears to have been subject to attenuation recently; (2) available ecological evidence on this association is contradictory to both individual-level findings on the same topic and similar ecological-level findings pertaining to personality-related risk factors and antecedents of suicide; (3) a negative association of one of the four ABO phenotypes with suicide mortality does not help single out phenotypes with possibly increased suicide risk; and (4) genetic suicide risk factors may well be associated with other ABO phenotypes than Type O and may further coincide with other blood polymorphisms than the ABO system.

Across 85 countries around the world, Voracek (2004) found a significant positive relation between estimated national intelligence (IQ) and national male and female suicide rate. The relation was not attenuated when countries' per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and type of national IQ estimation were statistically controlled. Independently, investigating the total national suicide rate only, Lester (2003) arrived at the same conclusion. These two findings are consistent with a corollary of de Catanzaro's (1981) evolutionary theory of human suicide, namely that a threshold intelligence is necessary for suicidality and that intelligence and suicide mortality should thus be positively related. Here, further evidence for this hypothesis is bolstered by focusing on suicide rates of the elderly. Across 48 Eurasian countries, estimated national IQ was significantly positively related to national suicide rates of people aged 65 years and over. This new ecological-level finding survived statistical controlling for a set of seven variables (type of national IQ estimation, national GDP, stableness and recency measures for suicide rates, and rates of adult literacy, urbanization and Roman Catholics), which thus are not confounding factors for the relation of intelligence and suicide mortality. Based on ecological data, the threshold IQ for suicidality is predicted to be 70 or slightly over, an estimate that is consistent with various suicidological observations.

Lester and Bean's (1992) Attribution of Causes to Suicide Scale gauges lay theories of suicide including intrapsychic problems, interpersonal conflicts, and societal forces as causes. Results obtained with its German form (n = 165 Austrian psychology undergraduates) showed no sex differences and no social-desirability effects. Intriguingly, all three subscales were moderately intercorrelated, thereby indicating respondents' general agreement (or disagreement) with all three theories. Thus, the critical dimension of lay theories of suicide appears to be the belief that suicide has definite causes (regardless of type) versus that it is without causes (unpredictable). In addition, religiosity was positively associated (and overall knowledge about suicide negatively associated) with belief in intrapsychic causes, whereas liberal political views were negatively associated with belief in interpersonal causes.

Veränderungen, Trennungen, familiäre Probleme, Suizid – Erfahrungen mit psychosozialen Krisen im näheren Umfeld oder auch bezogen auf die eigene Person sind in unserer heutigen Gesellschaft häufig. Welche Arten von Krisen gibt es? Wie kann man Menschen in schwierigen Situationen helfen? Wie kann ich Krisenintervention lernen? Und wie gehe ich mit der Thematik Suizid um?Dieses Lehrbuch gibt einen Einblick in den Umgang mit Menschen in psychosozialen Krisen und mit akut Suizidgefährdeten. Es erläutert Maßnahmen der Krisenintervention, gibt Hilfestellung beim Erkennen von Suizidalität und stellt antisuizidale Therapien und Maßnahmen zur Suizidprävention vor.

SummaryThe second-to-fourth digit ratio (2D:4D) presents an anatomical sex difference in humans. On average, men tend to have lower 2D:4D compared with women. There is fairly strong evidence for a role of the 2D:4D ratio as a biomarker for the organizational (permanent) effects of prenatal testosterone on the brain and behaviour. Recently, an accumulating research programme has shown 2D:4D to be related to a multitude of sex-dependent, hormonally influenced biosocial traits and phenotypes which reach into the domains of ability, behaviour, fertility, health, personality and sexuality. This study investigated the degree of assortative mating (spousal similarity) in a sample of 239 native Austrian couples of parental or grandparental age, all of them having reproduced. Results included: (i) significant spousal correlations of +0·19 and +0·18 for right-hand and left-hand 2D:4D, respectively, and +0·24 for average 2D:4D; (ii) no assortative mating effect on the right-minus-left difference in 2D:4D; (iii) indications consistent with a possible generational decrease of spousal similarity in 2D:4D; (iv) a prevalence of couples with a lower right-hand 2D:4D observed in the husband compared with his wife; and (v) relations of spousal 2D:4D patterns to spousal age differences, such that matings of men with more male-typical trait expressions (namely, a generally low right-hand 2D:4D or showing a lower right-minus-left 2D:4D difference than their wives) implicated larger male-minus-female age differences, i.e. younger wives. It is argued that assortative mating on 2D:4D operates indirectly and may be mediated through the assortment on other, more perceptible, physical traits and psychological phenotypes that entertain associations with 2D:4D and are relevant for courtship and mate choice.

Abstract. Background: For several decades, the question of whether personal suicidality is reflected in individual music preferences has been the subject of debate in suicide research. Despite many studies investigating the relationship between music use and suicidal behavior, it is still unclear whether suicide risk is reflected in individual music preferences. Aims: The present study aimed to assess whether music preferences are reflected in suicide risk factors. Method: We assessed suicidal ideation, depression, and hopelessness among 943 participants in a cross-sectional online survey. Participants provided up to five examples of their favorite music. We conducted a content analysis and coded all reported songs as suicide-related, coping-related, or unrelated to suicide. Results: Multivariate analyses controlling for gender, age, education level, and amount of daily music use indicated associations of preferences for suicide-related songs with suicidal ideation and depression. Limitations: Limitations of the present study include the use of a convenience sample and a cross-sectional design, the small number of participants with preferences for coping-related songs, and the relatively small effect size of the associations found. Conclusion: Music preferences appear to reflect suicide risk factors, with individuals who prefer suicide-related songs scoring higher in terms of suicidal ideation and depression.

Although distributional inequality and concentration are important statistical concepts in many research fields (including economics, political and social science, information theory, and biology and ecology), they rarely are considered in psychological science. This practical primer familiarizes with the concepts of statistical inequality and concentration and presents an overview of more than a dozen useful, popular measures of inequality (including the Gini, Hoover, Rosenbluth, Herfindahl-Hirschman, Simpson, Shannon, generalized entropy, and Atkinson indices, and tail ratios). Additionally, an interactive web application (R Shiny) for calculating and visualizing these measures, with downloadable output, is described. This companion Shiny app provides brief introductory vignettes to this suite of measures, along with easy-to-understand user guidance. The Shiny app can readily be used as an intuitively accessible, interactive learning and demonstration environment for teaching and exploring these methods. We provide various examples for the application of measures of inequality and concentration in psychological science and discuss venues for further development.