Citation

Voracek M, Loibl LM, Lester D. Crisis 2007; 28(4): 204-206.

Affiliation

Department of Basic Psychological Research, School of Psychology, University of Vienna, Austria. martin.voracek@univie.ac.at

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, International Association for Suicide Prevention, Publisher Hogrefe Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

18265741

Abstract

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.

Language: en