%0 Journal Article
%T What underlies death/suicide implicit association test measures and how it contributes to suicidal action
%J Philosophical psychology
%D 2022
%A Baston, R.
%V ePub
%N ePub
%P ePub-ePub
%X Recently, psychologists have developed indirect measurement procedures to predict suicidal behavior. A prominent example is the Death/Suicide Implicit Association Test (DS-IAT). In this paper, I argue that there is something special about the DS-IAT which distinguishes it from different IAT measures. I argue that the DS-IAT does not measure weak or strong associations between the implicit self-concept and the abstract concept of death. In contrast, assuming a goal-system approach, I suggest that sorting death-related to self-related words takes effort because death-related words trigger avoidance-impulses, which suicide ideation weakens. The DS-IAT taps into weakened automatic responses from the self-preservation system. Additionally, the suggested cognitive structure, illuminated with the selfish-goal theory, explains predictable suicidal behavior. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.<p /><p>Language: en</p>
%G en
%I Informa - Taylor and Francis Group
%@ 0951-5089
%U http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2022.2061342