Understanding suicide : conversations with the bereaved

This thesis presents a sociological inquiry into the meanings that families bereaved by suicide attach to the suicide of a young man. Through in-depth interviews and an email based focus group, this study explores families' attempts to understand how and why their loved one chose to end his life. Whilst interviews and focus group discussions were centred on the life and death of the young man, it became clear that the narratives of the bereaved were as much tales of themselves as they were tales of the deceased. The narratives of the life and death of the young man are only ever reconstructions from the relative's perspective. Therefore the research developed a broadly dual focus. It begins by exploring the families' constructions of the young man's life and death before moving on to look the experiences of the bereaved and their (reconstructions of themselves and their families. A social constructionist approach was adopted in order to explore the most significant discourses in helping families make sense of their loved one's death. This thesis shows how the discourse of mechcal-psychiatry was especially salient in their attempts to reach an understanding of their young man's suicide. In particular, families either resisted, or appealed to its dominant construction of suicide as showing signs of mental illness. In addition, the meanings and understandings attached to the young man's death were highly sophisticated attempts to negotiate blame to establish who was responsible for their loved one's death. Importantly whether families appealed to or resisted the dominant medical-psychiatric discourse - the salient point in all the families' constructions was the need to place responsibility outside the family. Moreover, suicide is a devastating death, often leaving families feeling isolated and stigmatised. As such, this thesis also chronicles the families' experiences of being bereaved by suicide their attempts to manage such a profound disruption in their own lives.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Understanding suicide: Conversations with the bereaved

This thesis presents a sociological inquiry into the meanings that families bereaved by suicide attach to the suicide of a young man. Through in-depth interviews and an email based focus group, this study explores families' attempts to understand how and why their loved one chose to end his life. Whilst interviews and focus group discussions were centred on the life and death of the young man, it became clear that the narratives of the bereaved were as much tales of themselves as they were tales of the deceased. The narratives of the life and death of the young man are only ever reconstructions from the relative's perspective. Therefore the research developed a broadly dual focus. It begins by exploring the families' constructions of the young man's life and death before moving on to look the experiences of the bereaved and their (reconstructions of themselves and their families. A social constructionist approach was adopted in order to explore the most significant discourses in helping families make sense of their loved one's death. This thesis shows how the discourse of mechcal-psychiatry was especially salient in their attempts to reach an understanding of their young man's suicide. In particular, families either resisted, or appealed to its dominant construction of suicide as showing signs of mental illness. In addition, the meanings and understandings attached to the young man's death were highly sophisticated attempts to negotiate blame to establish who was responsible for their loved one's death. Importantly whether families appealed to or resisted the dominant medical-psychiatric discourse - the salient point in all the families' constructions was the need to place responsibility outside the family. Moreover, suicide is a devastating death, often leaving families feeling isolated and stigmatised. As such, this thesis also chronicles the families' experiences of being bereaved by suicide their attempts to manage such a profound disruption in their own lives

Messung von internen und externen Kontrollüberzeugungen in allgemeinen Bevölkerungsumfragen

'Das Konzept der internen und externen Kontrollüberzeugungen wurde von J. B. Rotter 1966 in die Diskussion eingeführt und in der Folge von verschiedenen Autoren weiterentwickelt. Leider haben alle vorgelegten Operationalisierungen den gravierenden Nachteil, sehr zeitintensiv zu sein, da zur Messung 20 Items oder mehr verwendet werden. Der Einsatz in allgemeinen Bevölkerungsumfragen verbietet sich deshalb häufig schon aus Kostengründen. Problematisch ist zudem, daß diese Instrumente, die häufig ohnehin recht lange Befragungsdauer verlängern würden, was die Teilnahmebereitschaft beeinträchtigen kann. Da Kontrollüberzeugungen aber für eine Reihe von Merkmalen wichtige erklärende Variablen darstellen, haben wir zwei Kurzskalen mit je drei Items entwickelt. Die Items wurden 1995 und 1996 im Rahmen des ZUMA-Sozialwissenschaften-BUS getestet. Die Kurzskalen haben sich als hinreichend reliabel erwiesen (PCA und Cronbachs Alpha). Korrelationen zur Konstruktvalidierung fallen zwar nur mäßig stark aus, gehen aber in theoretisch erwartbare Richtungen, so daß wir die Instrumente auch als ausreichend valide einstufen.' (Autorenreferat)'The concept of an internal or external locus of control was introduced by J. B. Rotter in 1966 and modified by several other researchers in the interim. Unfortunately, all the available instruments consist of 20 items or more to measure the locus of control and are thus very time-consuming. Using them in general social surveys is often impossible not only because of high costs, but because the extra time needed can increase unit nonresponse - people are perhaps less willing to participate. Nonetheless, the locus of control is often an important predicting variable. We therefore developed two short scales with three items each. The items were tested in 1995 and 1996 as a part of the SOWIBUS omnibus survey (ZUMA-Sozialwissenschaften-BUS). The scales proved sufficiently reliable (PCA, Cronbach's Alpha). Correlations to prove construct validity are only moderate but produce theoretical expected directions. We therefore consider the instruments to be sufficiently valid.' (author's abstract)

The number and characteristics of newspaper and Twitter reports on suicides and road traffic deaths in young people

In the light of concern about the harmful effects of media reporting of suicides and a lack of comparative research, this study compares the number and characteristics of reports on suicides and road traffic accidents (RTAs) in young people (aged 11–18) in newspapers and Twitter during a 6- month period. Tweets about young people’s suicides were more numerous than newspaper reports. Twitter and newspaper reports were more strongly correlated for suicides than for RTAs. Recent suicides were less likely to be reported in newspapers than recent deaths by RTA. Bullying-related suicides were especially newsworthy. Suicide prevention organizations should consider routinely monitoring social media reportin