Journal Article Review of Love and Achievement Motives in Womens and Mens

Suicide Notes
Meredith Wrinkle
Canada College

Journal Article Review of Love and Achievement Motives in Womens and Mens
Suicide Notes

It is assumed that women die for love and [men] for glory. (Canetto 19921993)
The journal article I reviewed was a methodological article where the author
researched and compared the suicidal motives between men and women via suicide
notes. It is widely perceived and assumed that women commit suicide more often due to
relationship problems, and men more so for impersonal problems, such as work and
health issues.
Canetto discussed an International study of German suicide notes by Linn and
Lester (1997) where they concluded that men and women did not really differ in the
motives for suicide. This was also found in other studies done around the world in Hong
Kong, and the United Kingdom. In fact, the United Kingdom study, (McClelland, Reicher
and Booth (2000)) found that losses in relationships were more reported in mens suicide
notes than in womens; quite contrary to what seems to be a widely held belief.
Its also noted that age may be a factor in suicidal motives. One study, (Leenars
(1987)), found that young and middle-aged men and women (ages 26-54) were more
likely to mention interpersonal relationship problems than then older adults (55 and
older). Most notable of this study as it appears to me, is that young to middle-aged was
very broad and as the author notes, middle-age is more commonly perceived as ages 4060.

With those studies in mind the author of this article designed her methodology
accordingly. The study was a sample of 56 suicide notes from both men and women from
communities in the Northeast and Southwest of the United States, with the mean age of
the women being 36.6 and the men being 30.4. Also, 42 of the notes were from men and
only 14 from women who had successfully killed themselves. The striking difference in
the percentage of men and womens notes that were examined in this study was of note to
me. Id be curious to see if there was a difference between the results if more of a balance
between each genders notes was reached. Though the author does mention that because
the actual success of suicide attempts of men to women is 5:1 that it is consistent with
United States national trends. Though, women are more likely than men to leave notes
even if the attempt is unsuccessful. Though is was interesting to read that within this age
group the most common method of committing suicide was a firearm, I had assumed
there would be an obvious difference between men in women in their methods of suicide;
men being more likely to use a firearm, and women with other means such as pills or
razors.
The author used an interesting procedure for the examination of the notes. They
were examined by nonprofessional men and women, with a mean age of 33, who were
untrained and not familiar with suicide theories, and were unaware of the hypothesis of
the study. There were nine women and two men reviewers. The author mentions that the
use of these types of judges was for simplicity and clarity of the coding of the suicide
notes. They were asked to read each note, without knowing the sex or age of the author,
and then rate the presence of absence of (a) love or marital problems and (b)
achievement, school, or work problems on a scale of one to eleven. After reading about

the selection of the judges of the notes, and the rating scale I immediately became curious
of the results due to the fact the judges may have personal biases of what a love or
marital problem is, or achievement, school, or work problem. Also, the unbalanced
percentage of men to women judges seems it may skew results, as an equal number of
each may give us more of a balanced result. Though, I understood and agreed with the
judges being unaware of the age and sex of the note writers as well with being unaware
of the hypothesis.
The results of the authors study found that of the 56 notes, the mean score (of
one-eleven) of love motives was 5.27, and work motives was 2.38. The study results
showed no significant correlation between sex and motive, age and motive or sex/age and
motive. That proved that within this study that there was no difference in men and
womens motives of committing suicide, as well as no age difference. Love and romantic
problems were mentioned in almost all notes, and more than work or school problems.
The author does mention that these results are consistent with cross-cultural studies,
which I found interesting, but not surprising.
The author mentions at the end of her article that in studies of the United States
military that a majority of mens suicides follow a significant relationship problem or
breakdown. She also mentions that in a United Kingdom Study of men who survived a
suicide attempt that a typical motive was a relationship issue. She concludes by saying
they men just may be men who are more particularly prone to killing themselves for
love.
In conclusion, I was intrigued by the results of the study and how it was consistent
with cross-cultural studies. I would be interested to read the results with slightly different

methodology and procedure. For example, trained coders may have changed the results
by being more objective to what love or marital problems and achievement, school, or
work problems may be. Also, if the judges sexes would have been more balanced,
instead of male-female 2-11, it may have changed the studies outcome by the differences
in how men and women view love or marital problems and achievement, school, or
work problems. I would be interested in seeing a study of the same topic researched in a
different way.