Comparison between Experiential and Didactic Methods of Death Education

Abstract

This research examined the impact of a death and dying workshop on individual attitudes toward life and death. The workshop was a voluntary eight-hour, small group experience conducted for heterogeneous hospital staff of a large southeastern medical center. Pre-post questionnaire data were collected from two groups of workshop participants and a matched control group. One of the workshop groups (didactic group) participated in an educational program emphasizing lecture presentations and small group discussion. In contrast, the second workshop group (experiential) confronted, examined, and shared their own feelings and reactions to grief and death. Role playing and death awareness and grief exercises were used for this purpose. Data indicated that the experiential group showed a significant reduction in fear of death as a result of the workshop, whereas both the didactic and control groups changed negatively over time. Results support the view that an emotional, personal approach to death is an important element in an effective death educational program.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Somerville

R. S.

, Book Review, J. of Marriage and the Family, 37, pp. 1042–1044, 1975.

Murray

, Death Education and Its Effect on the Death Anxiety Level of Nurses, Psychological Reports, 35, p. 1250, 1974.

Bell

B. D.

, The Experimental Manipulation of Death Attitudes: A Preliminary Investigation, Omega, 6, pp. 199–205, 1975.

Lester

, Fear of Death of Suicidal Persons, Psychological Reports, 20, pp. 1077–1078, 1967.

Templar

D. I.

, The Construction and Validation of a Death Anxiety Scale, J. of General Psychology, 82, pp. 165–177, 1970.

Crumbaugh

J. C.

and Maholick

L. T.

, An Experimental Study in Existentialism: The Psychometric Approach to Frankl's Concept of Noogenic Neurosis, J. of Clinical Psychology, 20, pp. 200–207, 1964.

Barton

and Crowder

M. K.

, The Use of Role Playing Techniques as an Instructional Aid in Teaching About Dying, Death and Bereavement, Omega, 6, pp. 243–250, 1975.

Bloom

, On Teaching an Undergraduate Course on Death and Dying, Omega, 6, pp. 223–226, 1975.

Kopel

O'Connell

Paris

and Girardin

, A Human Relations Laboratory Approach to Death and Dying, Omega, 6, pp. 219–221, 1975.

10.

Simpson

M. A.

, The Do-It-Yourself Death Certificate in Evoking and Estimating Student Attitudes Toward Death, J. of Med. Education, 50, pp. 475–478, 1975.

11.

Weiner

H. B.

, Living Experiences With Death—A Journeyman's View Through Psychodrama, Omega, 6, pp. 251–274, 1975.

12.

Feifel

and Branscomb

A. B.

, Who's Afraid of Death?, J. of Abnormal Psychology, 81, pp. 282–288, 1973.

13.

Crowne

D. P.

and Marlowe

, A New Scale of Social Desirability Independent of Psychopathology, J. of Consulting Psychology, 24, pp. 349–354, 1960.

14.

Frankl

V. E.

, Man's Search for Meaning, Knopf, New York, 1965.

15.

Frankl

V. E.

, The Doctor and the Soul, Washington Square Press, New York, 1963.

16.

Blazer

J. A.

, The Relationship Between Meaning in Life and Fear of Death, Psychology, 10, pp. 72–73, 1973.

17.

Durlak

J. A.

, Relationship Between Individual Attitudes Toward Life and Death, J. of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 38, p. 463, 1972.

18.

Durlak

J. A.

, Relationship Between Attitudes Toward Life and Death Among Elderly Women, Developmental Psychology, 8, p. 146, 1973.

19.

Berman

A. L.

, Crisis Interventionists and Death Awareness: An Exercise for Training in Suicide Prevention, Crisis Intervention, 4, pp. 47–52, 1972.

20.

Kübler-Ross

, On Death and Dying, The MacMillan Company, New York, 1969.

21.

Berman

A. L.

and Hays

J. E.

, Relation Between Death Anxiety, Belief in After-Life, and Locus of Control, J. of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 41, p. 318, 1973.

22.

Krieger

S. R.

Epting

F. R.

and Leitner

L. M.

, Personal Constructs, Threat and Attitudes Toward Death, Omega, 5, pp. 299–310, 1974.

23.

Ray

J. J.

and Najman

, Death Anxiety and Death Acceptance: A Preliminary Approach, Omega, 5, pp. 311–315, 1974.