Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

FIGURE 4
According to a review of phone calls to one telephone help line, adolescents who 
were considering suicide most often mentioned family, peer relationships, and self-esteem 
problems. 
(Source: Boehm & Campbell, 1995.)
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420 Chapter 
12 
Development
Several warning signs indicate when a teenager’s problems may be severe 
enough to warrant concern about the possibility of a suicide attempt. They include 
the following:
• School problems, such as missing classes, truancy, and a sudden change in grades
• Frequent incidents of self-destructive behavior, such as careless accidents
• Loss of appetite or excessive eating
• Withdrawal from friends and peers
• Sleeping problems
• Signs of depression, tearfulness, or overt indications of psychological diffi culties, 
such as hallucinations
• A preoccupation with death, an afterlife, or what would happen “if I died”
• Putting affairs in order, such as giving away prized possessions or making 
arrangements for the care of a pet
• An explicit announcement of thoughts of suicide
If you know someone who shows signs that he or she is suicidal, urge that per-
son to seek professional help. You may need to take assertive action, such as enlist-
ing the assistance of family members or friends. Talk of suicide is a serious signal 
for help and not a confi dence to be kept. 
For immediate help with a suicide-related problem, call [phone], a national 
hotline staffed with trained counselors, or access www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org.  
It is not easy for male members of the Awa tribe in New Guinea 
to make the transition from childhood to adulthood. First come 
whippings with sticks and prickly branches both for the boys’ 
own past misdeeds and in honor of those tribesmen who were 
killed in warfare. In the next phase of the ritual, adults jab 
sharpened sticks into the boys’ nostrils. Then they force a fi ve-
foot length of vine into the boys’ throats until they gag and vomit. Finally, tribesmen 
cut the boys’ genitals, causing severe bleeding. 
Although the rites that mark the coming of age of boys in the Awa tribe sound 
horrifying to Westerners, they are comparable to those in other cultures. In some, 
youths must kneel on hot coals without displaying pain. In others, girls must toss wads 
of burning cotton from hand to hand and allow themselves to be bitten by hundreds of 
ants (Selsky, 1997). 
Other cultures have less fearsome although no less important ceremonies that mark 
the passage from childhood to adulthood. For instance, when a girl fi rst menstruates in 
traditional Apache tribes, the event is marked by dawn-to-dusk chanting. Western 
religions, too, have several types of celebrations, including bar mitzvahs and bat 
mitzvahs at age 13 for Jewish boys and girls, respectively, and confi rmation ceremonies 
for children in many Christian denominations (Magida, 2006). 
In most societies, males are the focus of coming-of-age ceremonies. The renowned 
anthropologist Margaret Mead remarked, only partly in jest, that the preponderance of 
male ceremonies might refl ect the fact that “the worry that boys will not grow up to be 
men is much more widespread than that girls will not grow up to be women” (1949, 
p. 195). Said another way, it may be that in most cultures men traditionally have higher 
status than women, and therefore those cultures regard boys’ transition into adulthood 
as more important. 
However, another fact may explain why most cultures place greater emphasis on 
male rather than female rites. For females, the transition from childhood is marked by 
a defi nite biological event: menstruation. For males, in contrast, no single event can be 
used to pinpoint entry into adulthood. Thus, men are forced to rely on culturally 
determined rituals to acknowledge their arrival into adulthood.
Exploring