Is Training in Psychology Associated With Increased Responsiveness to Suicidality?

The authors compared beginning & advanced psychology graduate students & practicing psychologists to nursing graduate students. A total of 139 participants in these 4 groups read a vignette about Pat, who had either contemplated suicide or never contemplated suicide, then completed questions about how they would respond to a telephone call from Pat, how suicidal they thought Pat was, & how good a no-suicide contract would be for Pat. Advanced students & psychologists were more helpful in their responses than beginning graduate students, who were more helpful than nursing graduate students. All participants noticed whether Pat had contemplated suicides & were fairly positive about no-suicide contracts. (26 refs.)