[Comparative study of the attitudes of students and nurses to physician-assisted suicide--first results]. / Egyetemi hallgatók és nóvérek az orvosi közremúködéssel elkövetett öngyilkossággal kapcsolatos attitúdjének összehasonlító vizsgálata--elsó eredmények.

While the popular media and the professional literature deal with the topic of euthanasia intensively, the problems of physician-assisted suicide received insufficient attention in Hungary. The authors review the most important details of the physician-assisted suicide. A twelve-item scale to measure attitude toward PAS (constructed and validated by G. Domino) was administered to the samples of Hungarian social science, medical students and nurses. The distributions of responses for the 12 items for the social and medical samples are compared and discussed. Also a cross-cultural comparison was made with an American student sample examined by Domino. The social science students who have the fewest personal experiences with serious, or terminally ill patients are the most liberal group, characterised by the most permissive attitudes toward PAS. Nurses who have everyday contact and experience with these patients are the most conservative; they show more or less conclusively the lowest acceptability rate of PAS. The attitudes of medical student's group, of the would-be physicians are between them, and they are the most controversial and ambivalent. Future research is necessary to get more information about attitudes toward physician-assisted suicide.

Test-retest reliability of the Suicide Opinion Questionnaire.

Test-retest reliabilities for the Suicide Opinion Questionnaire are presented for eight samples across seven countries, representing both Eastern and Western cultures. Despite the variability of the samples and of the test-retest intervals, values fully support the reliability of the subscales.

Attitudes toward suicide in Japanese and American medical students.

The Suicide Opinion Questionnaire (SOQ) was administered to two samples of medical school students, from Japan (n = 80 males and 20 females) and the United States (n = 80 males and 20 females). A MANOVA followed by univariate tests indicated significant differences on the Right to die, Normality, and Aggression scales between Japanese and United States students, and significant gender differences on the Religion and Impulsivity scales. No gender by nationality interaction was obtained. An analysis of the individual SOQ items revealed substantial differences between Japanese and United States medical students in their views on suicide.

A personality measure of Erikson's life stages: the Inventory of Psychosocial Balance.

The development and initial validation of the Inventory of Psychosocial Balance (IPB), designed to assess all eight Eriksonian psychosocial stages, is described. A pool of 208 items that survived a clinical analysis was administered to 528 subjects and then factor analyzed. The resulting eight factors parallel the eight stages and account for 72.34% of the total variance. Subsequent administrations of the IPB to various samples indicate adequate internal consistency and high test-retest reliability; significant correlations with the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) Social Maturity Index; consistent Q-sort portraits of high-scoring and low-scoring women; negligible correlations with test taking response styles, intelligence, and measures of psychopathology; and moderate developmental trends.

Measuring effective functioning in the elderly: an application of Erikson's theory.

This study seeks to assess effective functioning within Erikson's epigenetic theory of development, in a sample of 143 Elderhostel participants who were administered the Inventory of Psychosocial Balance (IPB) and the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) Self-Realization (Sr) scale. A correlational analysis indicated no major systematic sex differences, but significant intercorrelations between the IPB scales and the Self-Realization scale. Multiple regression analyses indicated that in men, Trust is the most important variable, with Generativity and Intimacy yielding negative weights, whereas for women, Identity is the major component, with Industry, Autonomy, Generativity, and Trust yielding negative weights. The results support the utility of the IPB as a vehicle to study psychosocial development in the elderly.

Attitudes toward suicide: a comparison of Canadian and U.S. college students.

The Suicide Opinion Questionnaire (SOQ) was administered to two samples (n = 100 each) of college students, one from Canada and one from the United States. A multivariate analysis of variance indicated substantial intergroup differences, but no sex differences. Univariate analyses indicated significant differences on 8 of the 15 SOQ factors, suggesting that Canadian college students perceive suicide as part of everyday life, not to be explained by recourse to religious, personality, or psychopathological constructs. The results are discussed in terms of six themes present in the suicide literature: motivation, acceptability, religion, impulsivity, recidivism, and misconceptions. Speculation is also provided regarding why such differences (despite considerable similarities) might exist.

An application of Gough's conceptual model to a measure of adolescent self-esteem.

The concept of self-esteem is central in psychology, but few well-validated measures exist. This paper presents some preliminary data on the Self-Esteem Questionnaire (SEQ) organized along Gough's conceptual model of primary, secondary, and tertiary evaluation. The SEQ appears to discriminate groups along a self-esteem continuum; fits in well with a variety of theoretical approaches; does not have nuisance loadings on sex, intelligence, or social status; is unduly affected by social desirability; and correlates well with standard measures of self-esteem.

Subjective assessment of sleep by Sleep Questionnaire.

A 55-item Sleep Questionnaire is presented for possible use as a standardized instrument in psychological studies of sleep. A factor analysis of responses from 145 adults to the questionnaire indicated 7 factors accounted for 71.7% of the total variance. These factors are congruent with sleep dimensions discussed in the literature and with other factor analytic investigations. A set of 11 clinical judgment scales are also presented. The reliabilities of both factor and clinical scales are adequate as judged by test-retest, internal consistency, and comparisons of self vs spouse ratings. The construct validity is supported by three studies showing significant differences between (a) medical patients with and without sleep disturbances, (b) psychiatric patients with and without symptoms of depression, and (c) short and long sleepers.