Assessing suicidality is common in mental health practice and is fundamental to suicide research. Although necessary, there is significant concern that such assessments have unintended harmful consequences. Using a longitudinal randomized control design, we evaluated whether repeated and frequent assessments of suicide-related thoughts and behaviors negatively affected individuals, including those at-risk for suicide-related outcomes. Adults (N = 282), including many diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), were recruited through psychiatric outpatient clinics and from the community at large, and were randomly assigned to assessment groups. A Control Assessment group responded to questions regarding negative psychological experiences several times each day during a 2-week Main Observation phase. During the same observation period, an Intensive Suicide Assessment group responded to the same questions, along with questions regarding suicidal behavior and ideation. Negative psychological outcomes were measured during the Main Observation phase (for BPD symptoms unrelated to suicide and for BPD-relevant emotions) and/or at the end of each week during the Main Observation phase and monthly for 6 months thereafter (for all outcomes, including suicidal ideation and behavior). Results revealed little evidence that intensive suicide assessment triggered negative outcomes, including suicidal ideation or behavior, even among people with BPD. A handful of effects did reach or approach significance, though these were temporary and non-robust. However, given the seriousness of some outcomes, we recommend that researchers or clinicians who implement experience sampling methods including suicide-related items carefully consider the benefits of asking about suicide and to inform participants about possible risks.

An alternating treatments design was used to evaluate and compare the effects of two interdependent group contingencies on the academic performance, on-task behavior, and disruptive behavior of eighth-grade students in a social studies class. All students were enrolled in a self-contained alternative school for students with behavior problems. Delivering rewards contingent upon participants’ average percent correct enhanced on-task behavior and percent correct on independent seatwork assignments; however, delivering rewards contingent upon participants’ on-task behavior yielded more consistent and larger increases in percent correct and on-task behavior. Neither group contingency resulted in consistent or meaningful changes in disruptive behavior. Theoretical and applied implications related to direct and indirect effects of interdependent group rewards are discussed along with directions for future research.

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Online evaluations of courses, although reputedly useful to students, instructors, and administrators, have been very limited in most college courses because of low response rates. With this scarcity in mind, we evaluated the effects of 3 interventions involving contingent extra credit on improvement of course-evaluation response rates to online evaluations (N = 162). The 3 interventions consisted of a small individual extra-credit incentive, a small group extra-credit incentive, and a formative-evaluation strategy in which extra credit was contingent on a pledge to submit course evaluations. At the end of the semester, we compared these response rates to one another and to previous-year course and campus response rates. The individual and group extra-credit incentives produced significantly higher submission rates than the previous-year percentages in the target course when instructors awarded no extra credit for submitting or pledging to submit course evaluations. Although students claimed that information regarding the beneficial effects of student evaluation on course improvement would motivate them to complete the evaluations, the results indicated that this claim did not increase course-evaluation response rates (even when instructors awarded extra credit for making the claim). End-of-semester response rates under the credit contingencies for submitting the course evaluations greatly exceeded the response rates in the university as a whole the previous year.