Deck 7: Suicide and Self-Harm

Question 1

Which of the following statements is FALSE?

A)The elderly have a higher suicide rate than the young.
B)Whites have a higher suicide rate than blacks.
C)Women have a higher suicide rate than men.
D)Residents in sparsely populated states have higher suicide rates than residents in densely populated states.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

A resident of your community makes the local news when,in a rage,he killed his wife.After the homicide,he immediately called his mother and expressed great remorse before taking his own life.This is an example of

A)felony suicide.
B)atonement suicide.
C)double suicide.
D)vindictive suicide.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Those who threaten suicide

A)usually attempt suicide.
B)would rather live than die.
C)usually commit suicide.
D)are socially functional.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

In the last few decades,the gender difference in suicide attempts has

A)widened substantially.
B)increased substantially.
C)narrowed significantly.
D)remained about the same.

Question 5

The majority of depressed Americans do not kill themselves;those who do commit suicide do so because they have been under the influence of

A)defects in their personality.
B)certain social forces in their lives.
C)drugs and alcohol.
D)their bad health.

Question 6

Generally,white males commit suicide

A)at the same rate as blacks.
B)about twice as often as blacks
C)four times more than blacks.
D)mostly in the summer.

Question 7

Which of the following groups has the highest suicide rates?

A)divorced persons
B)married persons
C)widows
D)single parents with children

Question 8

A strong religious identity and degree of religious conservatism is associated with a(n)_______ suicide rate.

A)higher
B)extremely high
C)lower
D)unaffected

Question 9

Scholars are starting to focus on body modification

A)as it relates to capitalist social systems.
B)as an artistic canvas or billboard for sending out messages to a target audience.
C)as relevant to media portrayals that cast body modification in a deviant light.
D)All of the above

Question 10

Official statistics on suicide rates are unreliable for all of the following reasons EXCEPT

A)officials in different countries,states,and local areas use different procedures to determine what constitutes suicide.
B)intermittent underreporting leads to distortions in data when it comes to comparing which groups are more likely to commit suicide.
C)suicide victims or their relatives may conceal evidence that the deaths were self-inflicted.
D)None of the above are correct

Question 11

The most popular means of suicide has become suicide by

A)hanging.
B)firearm.
C)wrist cutting.
D)pill overdose.

Question 12

All of the following are examples of ways in which cutters most commonly utilize the Internet,EXCEPT

A)to hide their cutting life from the non-cutting world.
B)as a means of disengaging from self-injury.
C)to seek support for the purpose of continuing self-injury.
D)as a platform for advocacy of self-harmer's rights.

Question 13

Which of the following is a way suicide attempters differ from suicide committers?

A)They are more likely to be men than women.
B)They use different methods but with more skill.
C)They are much fewer in number than committers.
D)They are more likely to be young.

Question 14

Each year,about __________ Americans die by their own hands.

A)50,000
B)42,000
C)70,000
D)100,000

Question 15

If a person kills him- or herself as punishment after murdering another,it is called __________ suicide.

A)revenge
B)surrealistic
C)apologetic
D)atonement

Question 16

If a person wanted to attempt suicide,but was not sure he or she wanted to die,which of the following methods would be the least favored?

A)wrist cutting
B)swallowing large amounts of sleeping pills
C)gas poisoning in a car
D)hanging or shooting

Question 17

In general,cutters are

A)a unified deviant group.
B)all suicidal.
C)gun enthusiasts and collectors.
D)difficult to situate in a category of deviance.

Question 18

From notes left by successful suicides and from reports given by suicide attempters,we can discern several types of suicidal feelings.Which of the following is NOT one of them?

A)feeling apologetic to their survivors
B)feeling hopeful about the prospect of an afterlife
C)feeling vindictive toward their survivors or themselves
D)feeling suffused with surrealistic feelings

Question 19

Cutters belong to a unique category of deviance in which they are free to engage in their deviance on their own,yet it is not necessary that they remain isolated from other like-minded deviants.This is an example of Best and Luckenbill's

A)individual deviants.
B)communal deviants.
C)loner deviants.
D)identical deviants.

Question 20

In the past,most researchers attributed the link between urbanization and suicide to

A)the city's homogeneous population.
B)the slower pace of life in urban neighborhoods.
C)conflicting social norms.
D)economic inequality.

Question 21

Which of the following is the most typical reaction of a suicide victim's family and friends?

A)glee
B)resolve
C)depression
D)guilt

Question 22

Over the last 40 years,adolescent suicides have

A)increased dramatically.
B)decreased dramatically.
C)remained about the same.
D)not increased as much as suicides among the elderly.

Question 23

When a famous person commits suicide,the nation's suicide rates

A)go up.
B)stay the same.
C)decline.
D)either go up or down.

Question 24

Which of the following groups of people has the LOWEST suicide rates?

A)married women with children
B)single women
C)single men with children
D)married men with no children

Question 25

Which of the following statements about the relationship between economic conditions and suicide is TRUE?

A)Suicide rates are higher in affluent societies than in poor ones.
B)Suicide rates are about the same from society to society,regardless of affluence or poverty.
C)African Americans,whose poverty rate is relatively higher,are more likely to kill themselves than are whites,who have a lower poverty rate.
D)Blacks and whites have about the same rate of suicide.

Question 26

Suicide rates depend significantly on

A)biological predispositions.
B)psychological problems.
C)how society responds to suicide.
D)individual predispositions.

Question 27

Even though few persons have requested assisted suicide in Oregon,that state's assisted suicide law has been gaining support throughout the United States because of growing recognition of the patient's

A)unbearable pain.
B)loss of quality of life.
C)right to privacy and to be left alone.
D)All of the above

Question 28

The Patient's Self-Determination Act passed by Congress requires hospitals to

A)take every measure to prevent suicide.
B)inform patients of rights to control their treatment through living wills.
C)arrest any doctors who provide any suicide assistance.
D)instruct doctors to remove life support,regardless of the patient's wishes.

Question 29

One of the reasons why recently diagnosed,less-sick,HIV-infected patients are more suicidal than those dying of AIDS-related illnesses is

A)that HIV is more stigmatized than AIDS.
B)the sudden transformation from being a totally healthy person to a seriously ill person.
C)that HIV is much more painful than AIDS.
D)the higher cost associated with living with the HIV virus.

Question 30

The high rise in youthful suicide over the last 40 years has resulted from

A)a great decline in social integration and regulation in teen life.
B)the worsening of the nation's economy.
C)a dramatic increase in publicity about suicide.
D)a substantial increase in school pressure.

Question 31

All of the following are indicators for potential increased risk of suicide in a college setting EXCEPT

A)suburban campus settings.
B)great pressure to achieve.
C)prestigious universities with intensely competitive atmospheres.
D)a plunge in one's grades.

Question 32

In the last 40 years,during which the number of suicide prevention centers has increased tremendously,the suicide rate has

A)decreased substantially.
B)not declined substantially.
C)risen dramatically.
D)increased faster among the old than the young.

Question 33

In Western societies today,higher suicide rates are due in part to

A)increasingly permissive attitudes toward suicide.
B)increasing criminal penalties against suicide.
C)a growing intolerance toward state-assisted suicides.
D)a decline in religious beliefs.

Question 34

All of the following are conditions under which doctors in the Netherlands can carry out euthanasia,EXCEPT that

A)it must be requested by the patient.
B)the patient must be mentally competent.
C)it must be approved by a panel of government officials.
D)the patient must have a disease with no prospect for improvement.

Question 35

Which of the following statements about the suicide bombers who attacked the United States on 9/11/2001 is TRUE?

A)They were all psychotic and irrational.
B)They were from poor families and were paid to commit suicide.
C)They were more poorly educated than other from their respective countries.
D)They came from relatively well-off,middle-class families.

Question 36

At what point is an inmate's stay at prison most likely to result in suicide?

A)after several years of a long sentence
B)after denial of a parole
C)when transferred from a local to a state prison
D)during the initial phase of imprisonment

Question 37

College students in the United States have higher suicide rates than their non-college peers because they

A)are exposed to deviant ideologies,which sometimes support suicide.
B)experience substantial peer group influence.
C)use too much drugs and alcohol.
D)are single and experience much stress.

Question 38

Research has shown a positive correlation between suicide rates and the air time of this genre of music.

A)classical
B)country
C)rock and roll
D)heavy metal

Question 39

Research has documented that the greater the air time given to country music,the higher the suicide rate.Which of the following is a possible reason?

A)the relative boredom surrounding country music,which upsets its listeners
B)the presence of religious themes in country music
C)the lonely lifestyles of the urban residents who listen to country music
D)the themes of country music,many of which are suicide-related

Question 40

Some countries with developing economies like China have high suicide rates because they

A)have widespread poverty.
B)practice forms of ritual suicide.
C)experience rapid social change.
D)have few formal religious institutions.

Question 41

Compared with suicide threateners,suicide attempters are more detailed in expressing their suicidal thoughts and feelings.

Question 42

The meanings assigned to some body modifications that are tied to deep cultural roots remains relatively intact over time,whereas more fleeting meanings are noted for alterations within modern societies.

Question 43

All cutters attempt suicide.

Question 44

Compared with suicide threateners,suicide attempters are more ambiguous in expressing their suicidal feelings.

Question 45

The type of suicide that slaves are more likely than free people to commit is called __________ suicide.

A)egoistic
B)fatalistic
C)anomic
D)voluntary

Question 46

Suicide prevention centers cannot substantially reduce suicide rates because

A)suicide is basically a psychological problem.
B)they cannot deal effectively with some individual types of potential suicides.
C)suicide is basically a sociological problem.
D)they rely too much on a social work perspective to guide their work.

Question 47

Psychological theories of suicide assume that suicide comes from

A)a defect in the person.
B)poor food and environmental pollution.
C)genetic factors.
D)major social problems.

Question 48

In his study on suicide,Emile Durkheim showed that

A)the individual act of suicide has social implications.
B)people with greater connections with society are less likely to commit suicide.
C)too much integration and individualism can lead to suicide.
D)All of the above

Question 49

Phenomenological theories of suicide

A)deal with the causation of suicide.
B)are based heavily on official suicide statistics.
C)deal with the popular meaning of suicide.
D)are based on biological conceptions of human behavior.

Question 50

The Internet has helped to de-stigmatize cutting.

Question 51

The type of suicide that unmarried people are more likely than married ones to commit is called __________ suicide.

A)egoistic
B)coerced
C)altruistic
D)anomic

Question 52

According to Jerry Jacobs's theory of the suicidal process,suicide victims overcome prohibitions against suicide through a series of events.What is the first stage of this process?

A)praying to God for forgiveness
B)believing that death is the only way to solve a personal problem
C)finding themselves faced with unexpected and unsolvable problems
D)feeling isolated and therefore free to act on one's own,thereby overcoming the prohibition against suicide

Question 53

According to Henry and Short's theory,all of the following are factors that promote suicide,EXCEPT for the

A)sociological.
B)psychological.
C)economic.
D)cultural.

Question 54

One reason suicide committers give for their suicidal behavior is a surrealistic view of reality.

Question 55

Suicide is a relatively rare form of deviant behavior,but it is more common than homicide.

Question 56

Durkheim theorized that there are two major forces shaping suicide: social integration and

A)social strain.
B)social inequality.
C)social regulation.
D)social change.

Question 57

In Douglas's view,the specific meanings of suicide to individuals help to

A)obstruct the suicidal process.
B)facilitate the suicidal process.
C)change the suicide-prone's mind.
D)create enormous guilt feelings in the suicide-prone person.

Question 58

Loner deviants commit deviant acts with only one or two other people,with minimal training,assistance,or support from other deviants who perform similar or identical acts.

Question 59

Recent research has suggested that practicing Christians have a higher suicide rate than nominal Christians.

Question 60

Cutters fall into the "loner" category of deviance.

Question 61

In practically all countries,men are more prone to suicide than women.

Question 62

Societies whose cultures are communal in nature tend to have higher rates of suicides,compared to societies that are more individualistic.

Question 63

________ of the younger age groups have the highest suicide rate of all racial groups.

Question 64

Persons who listen to country music have higher suicide rates.

Question 65

Greater air time of heavy metal music tends to lead to greater suicide rates.

Question 66

The suicide bombers who attacked the United States on 9/11/2001 came from poor families and were paid to commit suicide.

Question 67

Henry and Short's theory of suicide contains the concept of external restraint,which is similar to Durkheim's idea of "social regulation."

Question 68

To phenomenological sociologists,the official statistics are seriously unreliable.

Question 69

In general,widowed persons have the highest rates of suicide,followed by those who are single or divorced.

Question 70

Jacobs assumes that suicide is no longer defined by our society as "a violation of the sacred,God-given trust of life."

Question 71

__________ noted that "the best way of proving to one's self and to others that one is a member of a certain group is to place a distinctive mark on the body."

Question 72

Compared with young workers,college students enjoy an easier life and therefore have a greater immunity to suicide.

Question 73

According to the Durkheimian model,people with too much individualism commit altruistic suicide.

Question 74

Well-publicized suicides actually lead to a temporary reduction in suicide rates.

Question 75

Sociological theories,as opposed to psychological ones,assume that the causes of suicide reside within rather that outside of the individual.

Question 76

Almost all Americans argue that suicide is wrong,immoral behavior.

Question 77

The main impact of the Oregon assisted suicide law has been to create more support for assisted suicide throughout the United States.

Question 78

Americans have established a large suicide prevention network that has effectively reduced the suicide rate.

Question 79

Suicide __________ are explicit in communicating their suicidal intention to others.

Question 80

Durkheim argued that the extent of group integration and regulation influences suicide rates.