Chapter 12 Test Questions & Answers Suicide

The Last Dance: Encountering Death & Dying, 11e (DeSpelder)

Chapter 12 Suicide

1) The type of suicide involving a person who ends his or her life for others or for a greater good is known as

A) fatalistic suicide.

B) altruistic suicide.

C) anomic suicide.

D) chronic suicide.

2) Altruistic suicide is

A) the most typical type of suicide.

B) giving one's life for others or for a greater good.

C) a relatively recent sociological development.

D) virtually nonexistent throughout the world.

3) Historically and across cultures, suicide has been recognized as a way for a person to express his or her

A) ultimate commitment to a moral principle.

B) disagreement with organized religion.

C) love of country and patriotism.

D) need for remembrance.

4) All of the following are definitions of suicide EXCEPT

A) the act or instance of taking one's own life voluntarily and intentionally.

B) the human act of self-inflicted, self-intentioned cessation.

C) the human act of self-inflicted, unintentional cessation.

D) self-killing deriving from one's own inability or refusal to accept the terms of the human condition.

5) According to statistics, about how many people ended their lives by suicide in 2016 in the United States?

A) 18,000

B) 28,000

C) 45,000

D) 55,000

6) Among those who die by suicide

A) males outnumber females by about 4 to 1.

B) females outnumber males by about 4 to 1.

C) the numbers for males and females are about equal.

D) African American males outnumber white American males.

7) What is an impartial investigation by behavioral scientists to look for the motivational or intentional aspects of cases of ambiguous death?

A) anomic investigation

B) psychological autopsy

C) physical autopsy

D) investigative analysis

8) The 1989 explosion aboard the USS Iowa brought increased public attention to the use of

A) women in the military.

B) fire extinguishers.

C) psychological autopsies.

D) anatomical autopsies.

9) A psychological autopsy is

A) an individual's perspective of death.

B) an individual's attitude toward death.

C) a method of determining how a person feels about death.

D) a method of determining a person's thoughts and state of mind prior to death.

10) Which of the following are limitations of the psychological autopsy?

1. Retrospective nature

2. The individual of interest is not available for examination

3. Overabundance of standardized procedures

4. Third-party informants may distort representations of the decedent for a variety of reasons

A) 1, 2, and 3

B) 1, 2, and 4

C) 1, 3, and 4

D) 2, 3, and 4

11) The model of suicide that focuses on the relationship between individuals and society is called the

A) communal model.

B) sociological model.

C) psychodynamic model.

D) egoistic model.

12) The sociological model of suicide focuses on the relationship between

A) parents and children.

B) children and teachers.

C) individuals and society.

D) an individual's mental and emotional life.

13) Which type of suicide is characteristic of people who are disenfranchised or who live at the fringes of society?

A) Altruistic

B) Anomic

C) Desocialistic

D) Egoistic

14) Suicide among Japanese samurai following disgrace in battle is an example of

A) altruistic suicide.

B) anomic suicide.

C) egoistic suicide.

D) fatalistic suicide.

15) In India, the custom that called for a widow to throw herself upon her husband's cremation pyre is known as

A) seppuku.

B) hara-kiri.

C) kamikaze.

D) sāti.

16) The largest mass suicide in modern times occurred in

A) Jonestown, Guyana.

B) New Delhi, India.

C) Poznan, Poland.

D) Tokyo, Japan.

17) In what city did the largest mass suicide in history occur?

A) Rancho Santa Fe, California

B) Waco, Texas

C) Jonestown, Guyana

D) Tokyo, Japan

18) According to the sociological model, anomic suicides usually occur in societies wherein

A) little change has occurred over a long period of time.

B) traditions are being gradually transformed into modern belief systems.

C) strong group integration exists.

D) social regulation is insufficient.

19) According to the sociological model, suicide resulting from sudden trauma or catastrophe is classified as

A) egoistic suicide.

B) anomic suicide.

C) altruistic suicide.

D) fatalistic suicide.

20) According to the sociological model, anomic suicide is associated with

A) lack of freedom and absence of choice.

B) sudden change, trauma, or catastrophe.

C) detachment from social life.

D) excessive social regulation.

21) According to the sociological model, fatalistic suicide

A) results from lack of freedom and absence of choice.

B) develops in individuals who over identify with social values.

C) develops when a person's life has dramatically changed, as with the loss of a job.

D) seldom occurs in modern society.

22) Which of the following are among the insights associated with the psychoanalytic model of suicide?

1. The acute suicidal crisis is of relatively brief duration.

2. The suicidal individual is likely to be ambivalent about ending his or her life.

3. Most suicidal events are dyadic.

4. The suicide involves a low level of conscious hostility.

A) 1, 2, and 3

B) 1, 2, and 4

C) 1, 3, and 4

D) 2, 3, and 4

23) According to the psychoanalytic model, the aggression associated with suicidal behavior may be viewed as

A) lack of self-esteem.

B) depression turned on another.

C) anger redirected away from parents.

D) murder of the self.

24) Considering the role of aggression in the psychoanalytic model of suicide, suicide may be viewed as murder

A) without the consequences.

B) without aggression.

C) in the 360th degree.

D) in the 180th degree.

25) What is Edwin Shneidman referring to in his use of the term psychache?

A) A person who contemplates suicide is likely to harbor simultaneously a wish to live and a wish to die

B) Unbearable mental pain caused by the frustration of a person's most important needs

C) A person's strong, unconscious hostility combined with a lack of capacity to love others

D) Suicidal events that involve both the victim and a significant other in some way

26) According to the text, the sequence leading to suicide often begins with interactions between which of the following?

1. Life stress

2. Emotional hardship

3. Biochemical imbalances in the brain

4. Personality factors

A) 1, 2, and 3

B) 1, 2, and 4

C) 1, 3, and 4

D) 2, 3, and 4

27) What type of suicide is an escape "forced by life's becoming literally unbearable"?

A) Referred

B) Surcease

C) Chatterton

D) Pro-life, pro-death

28) Rational suicide is associated with a

A) desire to bring release from pain and suffering.

B) wish to inflict pain on others.

C) belief that the world would be better with one less person.

D) concern for the welfare of others.

29) Which of the following best fits into the category of "individual meanings" of suicide?

A) Suicide is criminal.

B) Suicide is the Great Death.

C) Suicide is sinful.

D) Suicide is reunion with a lost loved one.

30) Which of the following is considered an individual meaning of suicide?

A) Suicide is rest and refuge.

B) Suicide is sinful.

C) Suicide is criminal.

D) Suicide is the Great Death.

31) In 2016, the number of adults attempting suicide significantly outnumbered completed suicides. It is reported there were

A) 9.8 million attempts.

B) 2.6 million attempts.

C) 45,000 attempts.

D) 1.3 million attempts.

32) According to Karl Menninger, individuals who harm themselves by means of drugs, alcohol, smoking, or reckless driving are effectively dying by

A) referred suicide.

B) vice suicide.

C) chronic suicide.

D) pleasure suicide.

33) Which of the following are considered risk factors that influence suicidal behaviors?

1. Culture

2. Personality

3. Extreme ambition

4. Individual situation

A) 1, 2, and 3

B) 1, 2, and 4

C) 1, 3, and 4

D) 2, 3, and 4

34) Within the "intentioned death" category of death-related behaviors, a death seeker is someone who

A) expects to die in the near future and wants to choose the time and circumstances of death.

B) believes that death ends only physical existence and that the person continues to exist in another manner.

C) wishes to end consciousness and commits a suicidal act in such a way that rescue is unlikely.

D) gambles with death.

35) Within the "subintentioned death" category of death-related behavior, a death facilitator is someone who

A) offers little resistance to death, making it easy for death to occur.

B) does not consciously wish to die, but lives on the brink by taking drugs in such ways that he or she may become comatose or die with little concern.

C) has a great fear of death and plays a subintentional role in his or her death.

D) expedites his or her death by substance abuse or failing to safeguard well-being.

36) Which of the following statements best describes unintentioned death?

A) Death resulting from a person's patterns of management or style of living, although death is not the conscious, direct aim of the person's actions

B) Death resulting from the individual's direct, conscious behavior

C) Death in which the decedent plays no significant causative role

D) Death resulting from "living on the brink"

37) What term applies to the influence of suggestion on suicidal behavior?

A) Psychache

B) Romanticistic

C) Werther-effect

D) Crisis suicide

38) Brian Barry's description of pro-life forces includes all of the following EXCEPT

A) a belief that problems can promote growth.

B) a belief that problems are inherently unsolvable.

C) a willingness to struggle and suffer if necessary.

D) a healthy fear of death.

39) In the Romantic view, death is viewed as

A) life's greatest tragedy and to be avoided.

B) the natural end of physical existence.

C) the coming of darkness relative to the soul.

D) attractive and to be courted.

40) In what year were there more deaths in the military from suicide than from combat?

A) 1998

B) 2001

C) 2002

D) 2012

41) What profession in the United States loses, on average, as many as 400 people to suicide each year?

A) Police officers

B) Funeral directors

C) Physicians

D) High school principals

42) Social disruption, family problems, and substance abuse are all factors in suicidal behavior of which of the following age groups?

A) Childhood

B) Adolescence and young adulthood

C) Middle adulthood

D) Late adulthood

43) An arrangement wherein two or more individuals determine to kill themselves at the same time and usually at the same place is known as a

A) cluster suicide.

B) mass extermination.

C) suicide pact.

D) dyadic suicide.

44) All of the following are factors influencing suicide among middle-aged adults EXCEPT

A) testing limits.

B) depression.

C) negative life events.

D) alcoholism.

45) What age group is at higher risk for suicide than any other age group?

A) Adolescence

B) Young adults

C) Middle-aged

D) Elderly

46) Of the individuals who die by suicide, approximately what percentage write a final message?

A) 21 percent

B) 31 percent

C) 41 percent

D) 51 percent

47) In the United States, the earliest noteworthy example of a suicide prevention center was in

A) Boston.

B) St. Louis.

C) Los Angeles.

D) Cambridge.

48) In carrying out their mission, suicide prevention centers and crisis hotlines use

A) operational skills.

B) the caller's name and family members to personalize the help.

C) crisis intervention strategies.

D) only licensed professionals.

49) Which of the following categories best describes community programs that emphasize short-term treatment of persons who are actively experiencing a suicidal crisis?

A) Suicide elimination programs

B) Suicide intervention programs

C) Suicide postvention programs

D) Imminence programs

50) In relation to suicide, the term postvention refers to

A) policies for dealing with the deceased's possessions after death.

B) assistance given to all survivors of suicide.

C) guidance in setting up telephone hotlines.

D) methods of distracting people from suicide.

51) If a person says, "A life without love is a life without meaning," in which of the following ways is suicidal intent being communicated?

A) Verbal direct

B) Verbal indirect

C) Behavioral direct

D) Behavioral indirect

52) Suicide involves diverse motives and intentions.

53) Suicidal behavior may be immediate or long term.

54) Suicide is defined as an act rather than behavior.

55) In the United States, the suicide rate among males was nearly four times that of females.

56) Victim-precipitated deaths may be classified as suicide or homicide.

57) An explosion aboard the USS Iowa brought increased public attention to the use of suicide web support groups.

58) In feudal Japan, Samurai warriors generally viewed Seppuku as cowardly.

59) Suicide as protest occurred during the Vietnam War, when Buddhist monks died by self-immolation.

60) Seppuku was the type of mass suicide used in Waco, Texas by the Branch Davidians.

61) Historically, in India, a widow's ritual suicide was generally met with disapproval.

62) A suicide in prison would be considered a fatalistic suicide.

63) In studies of attempted and completed suicides, there appears to be no neurobiological determinant related to the brain's ability to use serotonin.

64) Some suicides appear to be related to a poetic or romantic attraction to death.

65) In the American military, the suicide rate is higher than in the general U.S. population.

66) There are relatively few (less than 5) risk factors in youthful suicides because adolescence is normally viewed as a time of storm and stress.

67) "Suicide websites" are social support sites in Japan available for families who have lost a loved one to suicide.

68) According to Glen Evans and Norman Farberow, suicidal intent expressed indirectly (verbally or behaviorally) is generally an attention-getting act and may be ignored.

69) The recent suicide of a friend and giving away prized possessions should be taken as a warning sign of a person at risk for suicide.