A Behavioral Assessment of the Reinforcement Contingencies Associated With the Occurrence of Suicidal Behaviors (Micro RC 569 T34 1975)

Suicidal behavior was examined as a set of instrumentally learned responses whose occurrence is determined by the same principles governing the performance of any operantly conditioned behavior. The study examined the type of events occurring in the lives of suicidal people which might serve as reinforcers for their suicidal behaviors and distinguish them from non-suicidal persons and whether changes in the frequency of these events related to changes in the frequency of the suicidal behaviors.