ACCURATELY IMAGINING SUICIDE - IMAGINE-SELF, IMAGINE-PERSON, OBSERVERINSTRUCTIONS

To see if actor versus observer instructions influenced students' perc eptions of social support during a suicidal crisis, 80 students comple ted social support, interpersonal reactivity, and suicidal behaviors q uestionnaires. In a yoked design, students who had been suicidal were matched with those who were instructed to imagine themselves being sui cidal, to imagine that another person was suicidal, or to observe a pe rson who was suicidal. Those who had been suicidal in the past (n = 20 ) were more suicidal than the other 3 groups (ns = 20). The suicidal g roup perceived high social support (belonging and appraisal), compared to the others, who perceived moderate support. Overall, nonsuicidal c ollege students consistently underestimated their suicidal peer's soci al support, regardless of the instructions they were given.