Interconnection between depression and suicide: structural analysis of the social representations

Abstract

The study investigated the interrelation between depression and suicide under a psycho-sociological approach, searching to understand and to describe the central and peripheral structure of the social representations of Psychology students, concerning these themes. The sample was composed of 233 students, of both sexes, all registered in the Psychology course. The instruments used were: the socio-demographic questionnaire and the Free Association of Words, where two inductive stimulus were used: depression and suicide. The data collected from this technique was processed with the use of the computational program EVOC. The observations registered for the inductive stimuli suicide were exceptionally loaded with the element depression, in the central nucleus. From the social representation point of view of depression, the investigated social actors evoked suicide in their peripheral system. The findings seem to demonstrate a representational structure similar and linked between the phenomena depression and suicide.