Harvard psychologist think they have have found a better way to predict how suicidal a person may be with two test. One test involves a modified Stroop test(the test Dr. Risser showed us with the colored words). The clinician measures the speed of the patients response to certain words. The words that suicidal patients might pay more attention to are life and death related. The second test is the Implicit Association Test that was designed by Mahzarin Banaji. To my understanding this test also measures the subject by the speed and association to certain stimuli that is life and death related. The finding suggest patients who payed more attention to certain words are six times more likely to attempt suicide. Combining the two test and a patients history together can lead to predictions of a patients risk of suicide for up to six months.
This is great research that is long past due. We all know what a waste of life suicide is. Almost everybody has been effected by the loss of a love one that has took their own life and often people express how they didn't see it coming. The true beauty of these test is how simply they are to administer. Also combining the two test is very important because a suicidal person would likely try to hide their suicidal feelings. These test seem to me to be process of content. I wonder if the designers of this study were influenced by the Process vs Content theory. My only criticism of this article would be not giving the reader an idea of how modern psychologist are treating suicidal patients.
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It's great that people are tying to find more solutions for preventing suicide. My only concern about this is that how do we know who to give the test too? Like you said, people are usually caught off guard when a loved one commits suicide.
ReplyDeleteI think in some cases some a test like that may predict a suicide. Although i do not think that all suicides could be predicted with this form of testing. I have known people to attempt suicide, who were so happy and out going, and had an event happen to them that blew everything up. I don't think all people have suicidal thought before an event to cause those thoughts. I think maybe tests would have to be done on a person before they ever try to commit suicide and done they same way on the same person after an event to cause those thought i wonder if the results would be different.
ReplyDeleteI personally believe that this article has just barely scraped the surface of who is more likely to commit suicide because honestly, like dr. risser said, these tests can be fooled. Also what things some people to doesn't mean others will. Like people who are interested in murderers and why people commit hanous crimes might also be prone to picking words that have to do more with death, well because clearly they are infatuated with it.
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