Cognitive therapy was effective in preventing suicide attempts for adults who recently attempted suicide.

Results indicate that multiple attempters display more severe psychopathology, suicidality, and interpersonal difficulties and are more likely to have histories of deleterious background characteristics than single attempters. Moreover, these differences cannot be explained by the diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. Results suggest that the identification of attempt status is a simple, yet powerful, means of gauging levels of risk and psychopathology.

The outline for theoretically unified psychology is offered. A new epistemological system is used to provide a unique vantage point to examine how psychological science exists in relationship to the other sciences. This new view suggests that psychology can be thought of as existing between the central insights of B. F. Skinner and Sigmund Freud. Specifically, Skinner's fundamental insight is merged with cognitive neuroscience to understand how mind emerges out of life. This conception is then joined with Freud's fundamental insight to understand the evolutionary changes in mind that gave rise to human culture. By linking life to mind from the bottom and mind to culture from the top, psychology is effectively boxed in between biology and the social sciences.We have a surfeit of facts. What we do not have, and most of us in the quiet of our nights know it, is an overarching conception of context in which we can put these facts and, having done so, the truth then stands a chance of emerging. (S. B. Sarason, 1989, p. 279) It is well known that there currently is no unified theory of psychology. There is so much ambiguity and so many theoretical schisms that students are taught to be skeptical of any unified approaches. In his popular book How to Think Straight About Psychology, Keith Stanovich (2001) characterized the difficulty in theoretically uniting the field as follows:The diversity of psychology guarantees that the task of theoretical unification will be immensely difficult. Indeed, many in psychology would argue that such a unification is impossible. Others, however, are searching for greater unification within the field . . . . No matter what their position on the issue, all psychologists agree that theoretical unification will be extremely difficult and that such a unification will occur years in the future, if it is to occur at all [italics added]. (p. 3)Stanovich further commented that many who first learn the subject matter are disappointed to discover the absence of a unifying perspective. However, he ultimately minimized the problems associated with disunity and suggested that the diversity of approaches in psychology is a strength.Although I applaud Stanovich's pluralistic approach from a political perspective, I take a different view on the issue of theoretical disunity. My view is similar to the one held by Arthur Staats (1983), who has articulated the problems associated with disunity as clearly as anyone. He observed:Psychology has so many unrelated elements of knowledge with so much mutual discreditation, inconsistency, redundancy, and controversy that abstracting general meaning is a great problem. There is a crisis, moreover, because the disunification feeds on itself and, left unchanged, will continue to grow. (Staats, 1991, p. 899) Others have expressed similar concerns. Paul Meehl (1978Meehl ( /1992 It is simply a sad fact that in soft psychology theories rise and decline, come and go, more as a function of baffled boredom than anything else; and the enterprise shows a disturbing abs...

The difference between the wish to die versus the wish to live is a unique risk factor for suicide.

A new form of knowledge technology is used to diagnose psychology's epistemological woes and provide a solution to the difficulties. The argument presented is that psychology has traditionally spanned two separate but intimately related problems: (a) the problem of animal behavior and (b) the problem of human behavior. Accordingly, the solution offered divides the field into two broad, logically consistent domains. The first domain is psychological formalism, which is defined as the science of mind, corresponds to animal behavior, and consists of the basic psychological sciences. The second domain is human psychology, which is defined as the science of human behavior at the individual level and is proposed as a hybrid that exists between psychological formalism and the social sciences.

The degree of intent to commit suicide and the severity of self-injury were examined in individuals (N = 180) who had recently attempted suicide. Although a minimal association was found between the degree of suicide intent and the degree of lethality of the attempt, the accuracy of expectations about the likelihood of dying was found to moderate the relationship between suicide intent and lethality. Specifically, higher levels of suicide intent were associated with more lethal attempts but only for those individuals who had more accurate expectations about the likelihood of dying from their attempts.

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Given the pervasiveness of stress and anxiety in our culture it is important to develop and implement interventions that can be easily utilized by large numbers of people that are readily available, inexpensive and have minimal side effects. Two studies explored the effectiveness of a computer-based heart rate variability biofeedback program on reducing anxiety and negative mood in college students. A pilot project (n = 9) of highly anxious students revealed sizable decreases in anxiety and negative mood following utilizing the program for 4 weeks. A second study (n = 35) employing an immediate versus delayed treatment design replicated the results, although the magnitude of the impact was not quite as strong. Despite observing decreases in anxiety, the expected changes in psychophysiological coherence were not observed.