Understanding Suicide: Causes, Prevention, and Statistics, Exercises of Abnormal Psychology

Download Understanding Suicide: Causes, Prevention, and Statistics and more Exercises Abnormal Psychology in PDF only on Docsity! Abnormal Psychology – PSY404 VU ©Copyright Virtual University of Pakistan 128 LESSON 28 SUICIDE No one commits suicide out of joy it is the psychological pain and agony that one wants to avoid. Suicide has been observed throughout the history. It has been recorded among the ancient Chinese, Greeks, and Romans. And in more recent times, suicides by such famous people as Ernest Hemingway and Marilyn Monroe have both shocked and fascinated society. Today suicide ranks among the top ten causes of death in Western society. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 120,000 deaths by suicide occur each year. More than 30,000 suicides are committed annually in the United States alone, by 12.8 out of every 100,000 inhabitants, accounting for almost 2 percent of all deaths in the nation (McIntosh, 1991; National Center for Health Statistics, 1988). It is also estimated that each year more than 2 million other persons throughout the world- 600,000 in the United States- make unsuccessful attempts to kill themselves; these people are called parasuicides (McIntosh, 1991). What is Suicide? One of the most influential writers on this topic defines suicide as an intentioned death- a self-inflicted death in which one makes an intentional, direct, and conscious effort to end one's life. Most theorists agree that the term "suicide" should be limited to deaths of this sort. Intentioned deaths may take various forms. Consider the following three imaginary instances. Although all of these people intended to die, their precise motives, the personal issues involved, and their suicidal actions differed greatly. Precipitating Factors in Suicide i) Stressful Events and Situations Researchers have repeatedly counted more undesirable events in the recent lives of suicide attempters than in those of matched control subjects. In one study, suicide attempters reported twice as many stressful events in the year before their attempt as non-suicidal depressed patients or non-depressed psychiatric patients. An attempt may be precipitated by a single recent event or, a series of events that have combined impact. ii) Abusive Environment Suicide is sometimes committed by victims of an abusive or repressive environment from which there is little or no hope of escape. Prisoners of war, victims of the Holocaust, abused spouses, and prison inmates have attempted to end their lives. Like those who have serious illnesses, these people may have been in constant psychological or physical pain, felt that they could endure no more suffering, and believed that there was no hope for improvement in their condition. iii) Occupational Stresses Certain jobs create ongoing feelings of tension or dissatisfaction that can precipitate suicide attempts. Research has found particularly high suicide rates among psychiatrists and psychologists, physicians, dentists, lawyers and unskilled laborers. iv) Role Conflict Another long-term stress linked to suicide is role conflict. Everyone occupies a variety of roles in life. The role of a spouse, employee, parent and colleague are some of the few to name. These different roles maybe in conflict with one another and they may cause considerable stress. In recent years researchers have found that women who hold jobs outside of the home often experience role conflicts-conflicts between their family demands and job requirements, for example, or between their social needs and vocational goals- and that these conflicts are reflected in a higher suicide rate. docsity.com Abnormal Psychology – PSY404 VU ©Copyright Virtual University of Pakistan 129 v) Mood and Thought Changes Many suicide attempts are preceded by a shift in the person's mood and thought. Although these shifts may not be severe enough to warrant a diagnosis of a mental disorder, they typically represent a significant change from the person's past mood or point of view. "No one commits suicide out of joy. Pain is what the suicidal person seeks to escape". In the cognitive realm, many people on the verge of suicide frequently develop a sense of hopelessness- a pessimistic belief that their present circumstances, problems, and negative will not change. vi) Alcohol Use Studies indicate that between 20 and 90 percent of those who commit suicide drink alcohol just before the act (Hirschfeld & Davidson, 1988). Autopsies reveal that about one-fifth of these people are intoxicated at the time of death. vii) Mental Disorders As we noted earlier, people who attempt suicide do not necessarily have a mental disorder. On the other hand, between 30 and 70 percent of all suicide attempters do display a mental disorder. VIEWS ON SUICIDE i) The Psychodynamic View Psychodynamic theorists believe that suicide usually results from a state of depression and a process of self- directed anger. This theory was first stated by Wilhelm Stekel at a meeting in Vienna in 1910, when he proclaimed that "no one kills himself who has not wanted to kill another or at least wished the death of another". Freud (1917) and Abraham (1916,1911) proposed that when people experience the real of symbolic loss of a loved one, they come to "introject" the lost person; that is, they unconsciously incorporate the person into their own identity and feel toward themselves as they had felt toward the other. ii) The Biological View Until the 1970s the belief that biological factors contribute to suicidal behavior was based primarily on family studies. Researchers repeatedly found higher rates of suicidal behavior among the parents and close relatives of suicidal people than among those of nonsuicidal people, suggesting that genetic, and biological, factors were at work. Studies of twins also were consistent with this view of suicide (Lester, 1986). A study of twins born in Denmark between 1870 and 1920, for example, located nineteen identical pairs and fifty- eight fraternal pairs in which at least one of the twins had committed suicide. In four of the identical pairs the other twin also committed suicide (21 percent), while the other twin never committed suicide among the fraternal pairs. Suicide in Different Age Groups The likelihood of committing suicide generally increases with age, although individuals of all ages may try to kill themselves. Recently particular attention has been focused on self-destruction in three age groups- children, partly because suicide at a very young age contradicts society's perception that childhood is an enjoyable period of discovery and growth; adolescents and young adults, because of the steady and highly publicized rise in their suicide rate; and the elderly, because suicide is more prevalent in this age group than any other. Adolescents and Young Adults Suicidal actions become much more common after the age of 14 than at any earlier age. In the United States more than 6,000 adolescents and young adults kill themselves each year; that is, more than 13 of every 100,000 persons between the age of 15 and 24 (Center for Disease Control, 1987). Teenagers Approximately 3,000 teenagers commit suicide in the United States each year, and as many as 250,000 may make attempts. Moreover, in a recent Gallup Poll (1991) a full third of teenagers surveyed said they had considered suicide, and 15 percent said they had thought about it seriously. docsity.com