Blog 9 - Advisory Prep 3

A common misconception is the topic of suicide is that speaking about it will cause suicidal thoughts or intent, however talking about it is the first step in preventing it from happening.

1. State whether or not you currently have a mentor, and what the status of your interview is with that person.

I currently my mentor  remains as Dr. Maureen Burney Ph.D., Director of Psychology at Chino Mental Health Associates.

My mentor and I have spoken of having our interview but have not had the chance to formally set a date, however if all goes well, I hope to have my interview done this weekend, as we have arranged a meeting for this Sunday to hopefully complete it.

2. Name the area or two you find most promising and explain your reasons.  

After several weeks of looking into different branches of psychology, I have been able to narrow down my topic to the area of suicide prevention, which is primarily due with my hopes of one day being able to save the lives of others through communication, listening and problem solving. Not only is suicide a concept that affects adolescents, but it is a topic that means different things to different social groups based upon ethnicity, nationality, race, religion, age, gender, sexuality and even social classes.

Suicide prevention seems most promising to me because not only is it a topic that I am interested in, but I have an emotional connection to this topic by helping my friends and relatives who have experienced suicidal thoughts, and it is for them that I am striving to understand why it occurs to begin with.  

3. What kinds of sources do you think will help you in the next month to gain more research depth?  Where will you go to get them?

The kinds of sources which I believe will help  me throughout the next month to gain more in depth research would have to be books from the CalPoly University Library and Articles from the University harddrive. journals from the journal of Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior which is a compilation of reports from around the world.

4. Write down a possible EQ.  

What would be the best approach in educating the public to be able to identify suicidal intent in peers, friends, relatives or others?