The displacement hypothesis in suicide: Person and situation in psychopathology

The failure of displacement to other suicide methods by reducing some opportunities is examined, particularly regarding the detoxification of domestic gas in England and the obstacles to jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge of San Francisco. Failure of displacement seems to characterize also other behaviors such as gambling, addictions, and crime. The displacement hypothesis is linked to the fundamental error of attribution that privileges the attention given to dispositional over situational aspects. Biases related to this attribution error are examined, such as the lack of stability and coherence of dispositional aspects in time and in different situations, the lack of coherence between attitudes and behaviors, and the errors that dispositional approaches induce in the prediction of behaviors with the variation of the situations. These biases question the traditional concept of personality and its role in symptom formation and behavioral prediction, and the traditional psychological models according to which behaviors are always a consequence of personal attitudes. The role of situational aspects, especially of the so-called "channels", has important preventive and therapeutic implications.