Psychologists' experiences of grief after client suicide: a qualitative study

Six clinical psychologists were interviewed regarding their experiences with client suicide. Interviewee's responses offered the following insights: (a) all their experiences met the criteria for prolonged grief; (b) the respective work settings significantly influenced the clinician's recovery process; and (c) male clinicians (in contrast to female respondents) reported no personal impact from the client's suicide. Finally and surprisingly, all participating psychologists did not question their clinical skills after the suicide, citing rather their understanding of the client's choice to suicide being outside of their control. Implications for clinical training, practice, and research are addressed.     

A qualitative study of attitudes toward suicide and suicide prevention among psychology students in Ghana

The purpose of the present study was to investigate attitudes toward suicide and suicide prevention among psychology students in Ghana by means of a qualitative analysis of open-ended questions about causes of suicide and how suicide best can be prevented. The students mainly saw the causes as intra-personal and almost all of them believed that suicide can be prevented. The results indicated a huge impact of religion on the attitudes toward suicide as well as some lack of distinction between their religious and professional roles and responsibilities.     

Facts and myths about suicide: a study of Jewish and Arab students in Israel

This research investigates the knowledge and myths regarding suicide among students in Israel, and examines whether they are affected by ethnic origin, gender, and religiosity. A random sample of 450 undergraduate students from two colleges was asked to fill out the Suicide Opinion Questionnaire (SOQ). Knowledge was measured by five SOQ items (alpha = 0.57) and myths of suicide by 20 SOQ items (alpha = 0.67). The level of Israeli students' knowledge about suicide is generally good (X = 3.21; SD = 0.58). There are significant differences, however, between the Jewish (n = 266) and Arab (n = 154) students in knowledge about basic facts of suicide in Israel [(X Arabs = 3.04; X Jews = 3.32; t (419, 0.95) = 4.63, p < .001)]. Although both groups share the same educational milieu, the Arab students tend more to believe that suicide rates are higher in Israel, and even more so among people of Asian African origin and minorities. They also perceive suicide by shooting to be the most popular suicide method. There are also significant differences between those groups with respect to their belief in suicide myths [(X Arabs = 2.91; SD = 0.40; X Jews = 3.17, SD = 0.41; t (419, 0.95)= 6.31, p < 0.01)]. Arabs tend more to relate suicide to lower religious affiliation, mental illness and chronic tendency, and to believe that the victim's relatives know nothing about the coming suicide. No significant differences were found based on religiosity or gender. Discussion focuses on the influence of the different cultural characteristics of lifestyle and the social control systems among Jews and Arabs in Israel on perceptions toward suicide.     

Motivation for research participation among people bereaved by suicide

Few studies directly address vulnerable populations' motivation for participating in research. Often motives are expressed spontaneously and typically given post-interview. This article investigates motivation for research participation among informants who have been bereaved by suicide. Informants were specifically asked for their motivation either prior to, or directly after the interview. Four categories of motivations were identified: (1) Helping Others, (2) Venting, (3) Insight, and (4) Just Because. Sixty percent of informants gave more than one motivation. The majority was altruistically motivated; they hoped that by taking part they could play a role in helping to prevent suicide, improving services for the bereaved or moving research forward. Close family members were more likely to be motivated by a desire to help others than more distant family members. Findings are discussed in the context of suicide-related bereavements. Information about research participation as beneficial to others should be given parallel to that of possible strain.     

Gloomy Sunday: did the "Hungarian suicide song" really create a suicide epidemic?

The effect of art on suicide risk has been a neglected topic in suicidology. The present article focuses on what is probably the best known song concerning suicide, Gloomy Sunday, the "Hungarian suicide song." An analysis of historical sources suggests that the song was believed to trigger suicides. It was, for example, banned by the BBC in England until 2002. The alleged increase in suicides in the 1930s associated with the playing of the song may be attributed to audience mood, especially the presence of a large number of depressed persons as a result of the Great Depression. The influence of music on suicide may be contingent on societal, social, and individual conditions, such as economic recessions, membership in musical subcultures, and psychiatric disturbance. Further research is needed on art forms, such as feature films, paintings, novels, and music that portray suicides in order to identify the conditions under which the triggering of suicides occurs.     

Major Hazard Information Policy in the European Community: Implications for Risk Analysis

The main impetus to the development of information about major industrial hazards in the European Community comes from the so-called Seveso Directive, which defines an information network and requires the generation and transmission of information as the basis for accident prevention and risk management. This important policy development, which calls for the formal identification and analysis of major hazards and the communication of risk information to members of the public, presents new opportunities and challenges to risk analysis and research in Europe. This paper briefly reviews the accidents that gave rise to the Directive and shaped its content, and then summarizes its requirements. The status of its implementation in the EC Member States is discussed, with special emphasis given to the comparison of safety analysis practices, the Major Accident Reporting System (MARS), and risk communication. Some new research directions stimulated by the Directive are identified.     

Workplace Bullying,Mobbing and General Harassment: A Review

Research into workplace bullying has continued to grow and mature since emerging from Scandinavian investigations into school bullying in the late 1970s. Research communities now exist well beyond Scandinavia, including Europe, the UK, Australia, Asia and the USA. While the terms ‘harassment’ and ‘mobbing’ are often used to describe bullying behaviour, ‘workplace bullying’ tends to be the most consistently used term throughout the research community. In the past two decades especially, researchers have made considerable advances in developing conceptual clarity, frameworks and theoretical explanations that help explain and address this very complex, but often oversimplified and misunderstood, phenomenon. Indeed, as a phenomenon, workplace bullying is now better understood with reasonably consistent research findings in relation to its prevalence; its negative effects on targets, bystanders and organizational effectiveness; and some of its likely antecedents. However, as highlighted in this review, many challenges remain, particularly in relation to its theoretical foundations and efficacy of prevention and management strategies. Drawing on Affective Events Theory, this review advances understanding through the development of a new conceptual model and analysis of its interrelated components, which explain the dynamic and complex nature of workplace bullying and emphasize current and future debates. Gaps in the literature and future research directions are discussed, including the vexing problem of developing an agreed definition of workplace bullying among the research community, the emergence of cyberbullying, the importance of bystanders in addressing the phenomenon and the use of both formal and informal approaches to prevention and intervention.     

Illustrating Risk: Anaphylaxis Through the Eyes of the Food‐Allergic Child

The risk perception research is widely focused on children as targets of risk. To date, very few studies have consulted with the impacted group to assess the perceptions of risk associated with the exposures of interest. Much less research has investigated the experiences of children at risk for anaphylaxis, their concerns, and the psychosocial stresses associated with risk. The present study explores the perceptions and experiences of Ontario students with anaphylaxis, and their parents regarding school as a safe place in order to inform school policy around risk management and coping. A “child‐centered” analytical framework incorporating illustrative techniques within interpretative analysis is outlined. Five prominent themes: (a) social and environmental barriers to safety, (b) coping strategies, (c) emotional burden of responsibility, (d) balance of responsibility (transitions), and (e) redefining “normal” are discussed. Results found that “child‐centered” techniques empowered children in a process that is meaningful and relevant to their lives. A preliminary framework for understanding what risk means to children highlighted the differences in how they cope in the public sphere of school.     

An exploratory study of the influence of the IS function and organizational context on business process reengineering project initiatives

To help evaluate the risk of process reengineering failure and enhance the prospect of its success, three potential sources of influence on BPR initiatives and success are examined in this study. These include the innovative capacity of the organization, IS maturity and strategy-IS interface. It was found that while factors related to IT maturity and influence such as experience in mainframe and client/server computing may facilitate the decision to reengineer, they are not critical in the later stages of the initiative. On the other hand, factors having significant relationships beyond the initial decision include variables pertaining to innovative capacity of the organization and strategy-IS interface. These findings suggest that technical IT competence as a critical enabler is necessary but not sufficient for reengineering success. Based on study findings regarding the innovative capacity of the organization, guidelines for reengineering risk assessment are proposed. In addition, implications of the findings, limitations of the study and opportunities for further research are also discussed.     

Risk Prevention and Policy-Making in Automatic Systems

Accidents with automatic production systems are reported to be on the order of one in a hundred or thousand robot-years, while fatal accidents are found to occur one or two orders of magnitude less frequently. Traditions in occupational safety tend to seek for safety targets in terms of zero severe accidents for automatic systems. Decision-making requires a risk assessment balancing potential risk reduction measures and costs within the cultural environment of a production company. This paper presents a simplified procedure which acts as a decision tool. The procedure is based on a risk concept approaching prevention both in a deterministic and in a probabilistic manner. Eight accident scenarios are shown to represent the potential accident processes involving robot interactions with people. Seven prevention policies are shown to cover the accident scenarios in principle. An additional probabilistic approach may indicate which extra safety measures can be taken against what risk reduction and additional costs. The risk evaluation process aims at achieving a quantitative acceptable risk level. For that purpose, three risk evaluation methods are discussed with respect to reaching broad consensus on the safety targets.     

Turkey's physicians' attitudes toward euthanasia: a brief research report

Euthanasia and assisted suicide are subject to an ongoing debate and discussed with various aspects. Because physicians are in a profession closely related to euthanasia, their attitudes toward this subject are significant. Thus, research intending to explore their opinions is carried out in many countries. In this study, opinions of the physicians regarding euthanasia's definition, contents, legal aspects, and acceptable conditions for its application are addressed. The questionnaire was given to 949 physicians, more than 1% of the total working in Turkey. Of the physicians who participated in the study, 49.9% agreed with the opinion that euthanasia should be legal in certain circumstances. In addition, 19% had come across a euthanasia request and the majority of physicians (55.9%) believed that euthanasia is applied secretly in the country despite the prohibitory legislation. In conclusion, the authors infer from the study itself and believe that euthanasia should be legal in certain circumstances and that the subject, which is not in the agenda of the Turkish population, should continue to be examined.     

Product Quality Risk Perceptions and Decisions: Contaminated Pet Food and Lead‐Painted Toys

In the context of the recent recalls of contaminated pet food and lead‐painted toys in the United States, we examine patterns of risk perceptions and decisions when facing consumer product‐caused quality risks. Two approaches were used to explore risk perceptions of the product recalls. In the first approach, we elicited judged probabilities and found that people appear to have greatly overestimated the actual risks for both product scenarios. In the second approach, we applied the psychometric paradigm to examine risk perception dimensions concerning these two specific products through factor analysis. There was a similar risk perception pattern for both products: they are seen as unknown risks and are relatively not dread risks. This pattern was also similar to what prior research found for lead paint. Further, we studied people's potential actions to deal with the recalls of these two products. Several factors were found to be significant predictors of respondents’ cautious actions for both product scenarios. Policy considerations regarding product quality risks are discussed. For example, risk communicators could reframe information messages to prompt people to consider total risks packed together from different causes, even when the risk message has been initiated due to a specific recall event.     

Gender Differences in Risk Perception: Theoretical and Methodological Perspectives

A substantial body of risk research indicates that women and men differ in their perceptions of risk. This paper discusses how they differ and why. A review of a number of existing empirical studies of risk perception points at several problems, regarding what gender differences are found in such studies, and how these differences are accounted for. Firstly, quantitative approaches, which have so far dominated risk research, and qualitative approaches give different, sometimes even contradictory images of women's and men's perceptions of risk. Secondly, the gender differences that appear are often left unexplained, and even when explanations are suggested, these are seldom related to gender research and gender theory in any systematic way. This paper argues that a coherent, theoretically informed gender perspective on risk is needed to improve the understanding of women's and men's risk perceptions. An analysis of social theories of gender points out some relations and distinctions which should be considered in such a perspective. It is argued that gender structures, reflected in gendered ideology and gendered practice, give rise to systematic gender differences in the perception of risk. These gender differences may be of different kinds, and their investigation requires the use of qualitative as well as quantitative methods. In conclusion, the arguments about gender and risk perception are brought together in a theoretical model which might serve as a starting point for further research.     

Challenges in assessing intent to die: can suicide attempters be trusted?

Assessing a person's intent to die in a suicide attempt is crucial for risk assessment and research, yet suicidal intent is notoriously difficult to measure. People who intended to die when they hurt themselves may deny it, and others may feign intent for secondary gain. Additionally, ambivalence, memory gaps, impulsivity, and fluidity of intent can hinder accurate assessment of intent. Circumstantial evidence, such as a suicide note, may illuminate true intentions but also has substantial limitations. This article summarizes disparate challenges to the measurement of suicidal intent; describes strengths and weaknesses of circumstantial indicators; reviews evidence from studies using the Suicide Intent Scale to show that subjective and circumstantial indicators do not strongly correlate with each other; and concludes with a call to place more trust in individuals whose disclosures of suicidal intent are questionable, even if the possibility for manipulation exists.     

Religious beliefs along the suicidal path in northern Taiwan

This study aimed to understand the current inclinations toward depression and compulsion for members of four different religious groups, and to predict religious beliefs along the suicide path through analyzing the lifetime prevalence of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts for members of these religious groups. Participants in this cross-sectional study, which adopted purposive sampling, were members of Christianity, Catholicism, Buddhism, and Taoism in northern Taiwan. In the case of suicide experiences, suicides among people one knows, and tendency toward compulsion and depression, there are statistical differences between the four religions. According to the results, some people with suicidal tendency will attend religious activities; therefore, we predict that religious beliefs play an important role in suicide prevention.     

A Quality Risk Management Model Approach for Cell Therapy Manufacturing

International regulatory authorities view risk management as an essential production need for the development of innovative, somatic cell‐based therapies in regenerative medicine. The available risk management guidelines, however, provide little guidance on specific risk analysis approaches and procedures applicable in clinical cell therapy manufacturing. This raises a number of problems. Cell manufacturing is a poorly automated process, prone to operator‐introduced variations, and affected by heterogeneity of the processed organs/tissues and lot‐dependent variability of reagent (e.g., collagenase) efficiency. In this study, the principal challenges faced in a cell‐based product manufacturing context (i.e., high dependence on human intervention and absence of reference standards for acceptable risk levels) are identified and addressed, and a risk management model approach applicable to manufacturing of cells for clinical use is described for the first time. The use of the heuristic and pseudo‐quantitative failure mode and effect analysis/failure mode and critical effect analysis risk analysis technique associated with direct estimation of severity, occurrence, and detection is, in this specific context, as effective as, but more efficient than, the analytic hierarchy process. Moreover, a severity/occurrence matrix and Pareto analysis can be successfully adopted to identify priority failure modes on which to act to mitigate risks. The application of this approach to clinical cell therapy manufacturing in regenerative medicine is also discussed.     

Who is a Distracted Driver? Associations between Mobile Phone Use while Driving,Domain‐Specific Risk Taking,and Personality

Mobile phone use while driving (MPUWD) is an increasingly common form of distracted driving. Given its widespread prevalence, it is important for researchers to identify factors that may predict who is more likely to engage in this risky behavior. The current study investigates associations between MPUWD risk behaviors, domain‐specific risk perceptions, and broad personality dimensions. An Italian community sample (n = 804) completed a survey regarding MPUWD risk perceptions and engagement in MPUWD, in addition to the HEXACO‐PI‐R, a broad six‐factor personality inventory (honesty‐humility, emotionality, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness to experience), and the DOSPERT, a six‐factor domain‐specific self‐report risk‐taking measure (health/safety, recreational, social, ethical, gambling, and investment). With respect to domain‐specific risk taking, greater frequency of SMS use while driving most strongly was associated with greater risk taking for the health/safety, gambling, and ethical risk domains. Further, greater honesty‐humility and conscientiousness, two traits related to cognitive control and risk behaviors, and to a lesser extent openness to experience, were associated with less frequent MPUWD, and positively associated with MPUWD risk perceptions. With growing public safety concern surrounding MPUWD, understanding associated personality factors is not only important for identifying psychological mechanisms underlying risk behavior, but also for more effective prevention and intervention programs.     

Risk and Systems Theory

The last few decades have seen increasingly widespread use of risk assessment and management techniques as aids in making complex decisions. However, despite the progress that has been made in risk science, there still remain numerous examples of risk-based decisions and conclusions that have caused great controversy. In particular, there is a great deal of debate surrounding risk assessment: the role of values and ethics and other extra-scientific factors, the efficacy of quantitative versus qualitative analysis, and the role of uncertainty and incomplete information. Many of the epistemological and methodological issues confronting risk assessment have been explored in general systems theory, where techniques exist to manage such issues. However, the use of systems theory and systems analysis tools is still not widespread in risk management. This article builds on the Alachlor risk assessment case study of Brunk, Haworth, and Lee to present a systems-based view of the risk assessment process. The details of the case study are reviewed and the authors' original conclusions regarding the effects of extra-scientific factors on risk assessment are discussed. Concepts from systems theory are introduced to provide a mechanism with which to illustrate these extra-scientific effects The role of a systems study within a risk assessment is explained, resulting in an improved view of the problem formulation process The consequences regarding the definition of risk and its role in decision making are then explored.     

Canada's Health Status: A Public Health Perspective1

Health status assessment and disease surveillance are essential to identify and priorize health issues, to evaluate intervention programs and to plan to meet future needs for health services. Canadians currently benefit by having among the highest life expectancies at birth in the world (81 for females, 74 for males). Disability-free life expectancies for females and males, respectively, were 10.1 and 11.3 years lower for the lowest income quintile compared to the highest. Canada's infant mortality rate in 1990 (7/1000 live births) was one of the lowest in the world but within Canada, the rate in the lowest income quintile (10.5/1000 live births) was almost double that in the highest income quintile (5.8/1000 live births). Fair or poor health was reported by 36% of adult Canadians in the lowest income category in 1990 compared to only 5% in the highest income group. The leading causes of premature death for females in 1991 were breast cancer, coronary heart disease, lung cancer, car crashes, birth defects and suicide; those for males were coronary heart disease, suicide, car crashes, lung cancer, birth defects, and AIDS. Lowest income quintile males had mortality rates at least double those for the highest income quintile for alcohol-related conditions, violence, injuries and emphysema. Cardiovascular diseases, cancer, musculoskeletal diseases, injuries and respiratory diseases imposed the highest direct and indirect economic costs in Canada in 1986. For all of these conditions, improved prevention is possible. For example, the forecasted tobacco-related deaths before age 70 among current male smokers age 15 will far exceed those due to car crashes, suicide, murder, AIDS, and drug abuse combined. Population aging will aggravate trends for many chronic conditions especially those with increasing incidence rates; there will be large increases in the numbers of persons with aging-related cancers, dementias and other conditions. There is an urgent need for Canadian health jurisdictions to ensure that rational priorities, goals/objectives, strategies, and programs are in place to enhance prevention and disease control.     

Explaining Suicide in Organizations: Durkheim Revisited

Drawing on Durkheim's concept of anomie, we address the under‐explored phenomenon of anomic suicide in contemporary organizations and discuss the consequences of solidarity for organizations and society. The relations of social solidarity to issues of identity and insecurity are explored through the cases of France Telecom Orange and Foxconn. Remedial implications for organizing, considered as community building, are discussed. Durkheim wrote not only about anomic but also altruistic suicide. We will also analyze examples of this type of suicide. Some tentative suggestions are made for how to organize to minimize the incidence of suicidal violence in organizations.