Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

9-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Program

Psychology

Advisor

Regina Miranda

Committee Members

Evelyn Behar

Tracy Dennis-Tiwary

Elizabeth Jeglic

Nicholas Sibrava

Subject Categories

Clinical Psychology | Cognitive Psychology

Keywords

engagement and disengagement bias, construct accessibility, suicide ideation, cognitive processing, affect induction

Abstract

Objective: Biased processing of suicide-related information has been implicated in risk of future suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Although previous studies have classified this biased processing, the tasks used to examine these biases cannot definitely specify which attentional processes are related to risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Therefore, via two independent studies, this dissertation sought to distinguish suicide-specific attentional engagement and disengagement biases from other forms of cognitive processing, such as accessibility of suicide-related stimuli and threat bias toward and away from socially threatening stimuli. Additionally, this dissertation investigated under which affective conditions suicide-specific engagement and disengagement biases emerged. Study 1 examined the effect of recency of suicide ideation on attention disengagement biases and accessibility of suicide-related stimuli. Study 2 examined the interactive effects of recency of suicide ideation and affective states on suicide-specific engagement and disengagement biases and suicide-related construct accessibility.

Method: Participants in Study 1 (N = 125; 79% women) were recruited from a college campus in New York City, whereas participants in Study 2 (N = 153; 75% women) were recruited virtually across the United States. Both samples were screened for moderate-to-high symptoms of anxiety and depression, and participants in Study 2 were also screened for suicide ideation. Participants in Study 1 completed an attention disengagement task and a construct accessibility task, along with self-report measures of suicide ideation and clinical covariates. Those in Study 2 were randomly assigned to experience positive, negative, or neutral affect. They completed the same construct accessibility task and clinical covariates as participants in Study 1, but also completed an attention task that distinctly measured engagement and disengagement biases, as well as a dot-probe task measuring bias toward and away from socially threatening stimuli.

Results: Study 1 showed that participants with past-month suicide ideation displayed facilitated disengagement from suicide-specific stimuli relative to peers with lifetime ideation. Study 2 showed a significant interaction between affect and recency of SI on suicide-specific disengagement bias. Participants with recent suicide ideation displayed facilitated disengagement from suicide-specific stimuli irrespective of affective state. In contrast, those with lifetime suicide ideation showed slower disengagement from suicide-specific stimuli when assigned to the sadness condition compared to other affective conditions.

Conclusions: Findings from both studies suggest that individuals with recent suicide ideation display automatic processing of suicide-related information, perhaps due to recent rehearsal of suicide content. In contrast, individuals who thought about suicide more distally and experienced unpleasant emotions appear to have difficulty disengaging attention from suicide-related content.

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