Reducing Self-Dehumanization to Examine Oxytocin and Suicide Risk

"Participants will:~1\. be provided with a lay summary of an ostensible research article that used quantitative and qualitative data to capture the experiences of feeling less than human and mechanisms for reclaiming human identity. The summary will reveal general themes of humanness based on participant responses including body and soul awareness, agency, connection, and creativity.~1. write a 30-minute reflective essay on how did the rehumanization efforts described in the survey make people feel more human? where they will be encouraged to use examples from their own lives~2. asked to create videos based on the insights shared in the essays. The researchers will explain, We would like to record you reading your essay on camera. We believe it would be especially impactful for clinicians developing these interventions to hear directly from someone who has recently navigated similar experiences."

"Participants will:~1\. be provided with a lay summary of an ostensible research article that used quantitative and qualitative data to capture the experiences of political attitudes and routes to political sophistication. The summary will reveal general themes of political sophistication based on participant responses including gathering information through diverse news outlets, analyzing policy and legislation, and participation in civic engagement~1. write a 30-minute reflective essay on how did the political efforts described in the survey refine political attitudes? where they will be encouraged to use examples from their own lives~2. asked to create videos based on the insights shared in the essays. The researchers will explain, We plan to take excerpts of what you write here and share it with future voters to aid in developing political attitudes."

Self-Injurious Thoughts and Behaviors Interview-Short Form (SITBI-SF). Participants will complete an in-person interview featuring 72-items about their history of self-injury and suicidal behaviors. This interview includes 6 yes/no style questions about suicidal thoughts, suicidal plans, suicidal gestures, suicidal attempts, nonsuicidal self-injury thoughts, and nonsuicidal self-injury. Each category that is endorsed, across the lifetime, has follow up questions surrounding times, duration, intensity, severity, type, and if medical attention was sought. This interview has sound psychometric properties.

Depressive Symptom Index - Suicidality Subscale (DSI-SS). Patient Health Questionnaire-8 (PHQ-8). Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire (INQ). Self-Dehumanization Scale (SDS).

Five milliliters of blood will be drawn before and after study interventions for the quantification of plasma oxytocin concentrations by certified phlebotomists. Samples will be collected into chilled EDTA tubes, inverted ten times to mix with anticoagulants, and centrifuged at 1600g for 15 minutes at 4˚C. Cleared plasma will be aliquoted into cryotubes and stored at -80˚C. Consistent with expert recommendations, oxytocin levels will be obtained from the samples diluted 1:4 (i.e., oxytocin can be discarded through plasma proteins when incorporating an extraction step before conducting the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay \[ELISA\]). Second, to buffer against contrasting concerns, an aliquot of each sample will be analyzed for test-retest purposes. Oxytocin concentrations will be measured using a validated commercially available and sensitive ELISA neurophysin kit (Abcam).