Death construal in suicide
department or school: Arts, Faculty of
department or school: Psychology, Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Qiu, Tianyou
issued: 2021-08-12T21:59:41Z
issued: 2021
related degree: Doctor of Philosophy - PhD
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Suicide attempts are a leading cause of global mortality and a significant public health problem. However, most identified risk factors for suicide predict suicidal ideation, but not attempts. How suicidal individuals construe death (i.e., “death construal”) may alter the nature of suicidal ideation and reduce the barriers to making a suicide attempt. The current project was the first to examine death construal in relations to suicidal ideation and attempts. Specifically, utilizing two samples (undergraduate sample [n = 549], and community sample [n = 288]), the current research (1) investigated whether fear of death distinguishes among those with a history of suicide attempts, those with a history of suicidal ideation, and non-suicidal participants; and (2) explored whether cognitions and other emotions about death and dying distinguish among those with a history of suicidal ideation, those with a history of suicide attempts, and non-suicidal participants. Additionally, participants in the undergraduate sample were followed up over a period of 1-2 months to (3) examine temporal stability of various death construal constructs, as well as their longitudinal relationships to wish to live. Results indicated that fear of death did not meaningfully distinguish those with a history of suicide attempts from those with a history of suicidal ideation. However, several death construal variables did consistently distinguish those with a history of suicidal ideation from non-suicidal individuals across samples. Specifically, conceptualizing death as annihilation distinguished those with a history of suicidal ideation from non-suicidal individuals, and predicted future decreases in wish to live at follow-up. Moreover, a specific emotion – feeling relieved about death and dying – also distinguished those with a history of suicidal ideation from non-suicidal individuals. Most death construal variables exhibited strong stability over a 1-2 months period. These results have importan…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/79284
note: DEATH CONSTRUAL IN SUICIDE by TIANYOU QIU B.A., University of Cambridge, 2015 M.A., The University of British Columbia, 2017 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Psychology) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) August 2021 © Tianyou Qiu, 2021 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the dissertation entitled: Death construal in suicide submitted by Tianyou Qiu in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology Examining Committee: E David Klonsky, Psychology, UBC Supervisor Steven Heine, Psychology, UBC Supervisory Committee Member Frances Chen, Psychology, UBC University Examiner Sally Thorne, Nursing, UBC University Examiner Additional Supervisory Committee Members: Paul Hewitt, Psychology, UBC Supervisory Committee Member iii Abstract Suicide attempts are a leading cause of global mortality and a significant public health problem. However, most identified risk factors for suicide predict suicidal ideation, but not attempts. How suicidal individuals construe death (i.e., “death construal”) may alter the nature of suicidal ideation and reduce the barriers to making a suicide attempt. The current project was the first to examine death construal in relations to suicidal ideation and attempts. Specifically, utilizing two samples (undergraduate sample [n = 549], and community sample [n = 288]), the current research (1) investigated whether fear of death distinguishes among those with a history of suicide attempts, those with a history of suicidal ideation, and non-suicidal participants; and (2) explored whether cognitions and other emotions about death and dying distinguish among those with a history of suicidal ideation, those with a history of suicide attempts, and non-suicidal participants. Add…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2021-11
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0401400
language: eng
degree discipline: Psychology
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Klonsky, E. David
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/79284