Death ideation in suicidal patients.

In a 3 X 2 X 2 factorial design with repeated measures on the last factor, a suicide attempt, suicide ideation, and nonsuicidal control group of Veterans Administration neuropsychiatric patients, equally divided into psychotic and neurotic subgroups, containing IS Ss each, viewed 2 classes of slides—unpleasant slides and death slides. Measures of viewing time, rated tension, and rated liking were obtained. Partial confirmation was obtained for the hypothesis that psychotic patients would show less threat to death slides than the neurotic patients. The hypothesis that suicidal patients would show more avoidance, tension, and dislike for the death slides than the control patients was not supported. In addition, the hypothesis that the suicide attempt group would show less avoidance, tension, and dislike than the suicide ideation group was not supported. Discussion centered around the hypothesized roles of psychological distance from death, cognitive style, and the stimulus properties of death.