Lay Theories of Suicide Among Austrian Psychology Undergraduates

Lester & Bean’s (1992) Attribution of Causes to Suicide Scale guages lay theories of suicide including intrapsychic problems, interpersonal conflicts, & societal forces as causes. Using its German form, no sex differences & no social-desirability effects were found in a sample of 165 Austrian psychology undergraduates. All 3 subscales were moderately intercorrelated indicating respondents’ general agreement or disagreement with all 3 theories. The critical dimension of lay theories of suicide appears to be the belief suicide has definite causes versus it is without cause. (11 refs.)