Measuring Fear of Death

A Multidimensional Approach

Datos Bibliográficos

ID13627622
AutoresChristine Littlefield (York University, Ontario, autor de correspondencia), Stephen Fleming (York University, Ontario)
Año1985
Volumen15
Número2
Páginas131-138
Fecha de publicación1985-10-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaOMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0030-2228 • E-ISSN: 1541-3764
EditorialSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2190/k32k-ct6q-1ctc-u6r5
OpenAlexW2108407406
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas11
Referencias citadas17

In the research literature on death and dying, two assumptions are often made: 1) the prospect of death is universally anxiety-provoking and 2) death fear is a unidimensional construct. In order to explore the veracity of these assumptions, participants were shown a film designed to manipulate fear of death. Scores on a trait and a state measure of death fear were related to belief in an afterlife and response latencies to death words and neutral words in a word association test. While a previous finding linking increased belief in afterlife with a death-threat situation was not supported, it was found that high scores on the Templer fear of death scale were correlated with longer response latencies to death than to neutral words on the word association test. This indicates a positive association between a “direct” and “indirect” measure of fear of death, undermining the commonly held assumption that low scores on a fear of death scale are indicative of repression. Moreover, since fear of death was seen to increase in the experimental group (according to a state measure), while no change was observed on the Templer fear of death scale (a trait measure), this suggests that death fear is not a unidimensional construct

Afterlife · Anxiety · Association (psychology · Construct (python library · Death anxiety · Fear of death · Psychiatry · Psychotherapist · Scale (ratio · Trait · Clinical Psychology · Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health · Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs · Psychology · Social Psychology