Psychotherapy Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Psychotherapy, including details on psychiatry, psychoanalysis, methods, outcomes.

Assessment of self-injurious thoughts using a behavioral test.

Nock MK, Banaji MR

Department of Psychology, Harvard University, 33 Kirkland St., Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. nock@wjh.harvard.edu

OBJECTIVE: The assessment of self-injurious thoughts has been limited by a reliance on what individuals are willing or able to report explicitly. The authors examined a new method that measures self-injurious thoughts by using individuals' reaction times to self-injury-related stimuli on a computerized test. METHOD: Eighty-nine adolescents who were not self-injurious (N=36) or had recently engaged in nonsuicidal self-injury (N=53) completed two versions of the Self-Injury Implicit Association Test, which measure the automatic association of self-injury with oneself and with favorableness. RESULTS: The tests revealed significant behavioral differences between the self-injurers and noninjurers. Moreover, test scores significantly improved the statistical prediction of nonsuicidal self-injury beyond that achieved with demographic and psychiatric factors. CONCLUSIONS: These initial results support the validity of the Self-Injury Implicit Association Test as a performance-based measure of self-injurious thoughts. Future research should further examine the usefulness of incorporating implicit measures in risk assessment and decision-making procedures for self-injury and other sensitive clinical behaviors.

Published 3 May 2007 in Am J Psychiatry, 164(5): 820-3.
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