The Corriveau-Kelly Death Anxiety Scale

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop a more reliable and sensitive death anxiety scale. In the first study, Templer's Death Anxiety Scale and a newly-developed scale, the Corriveau-Kelly Death Anxiety Scale, were administered to 108 psychology students at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. Test-retest reliability coefficients for Templer's scale and the new instrument were .85 and .95 respectively while internal consistency coefficients for Templer's scale and the new scale were .73 and .95 respectively. In the second study, both death anxiety scales were administered to twenty-six hospice volunteers before and after training. Whereas Templer's scale was not able to detect a statistically significant change (t = 1.9, p > .05), the new instrument showed a significant decrease in death anxiety after training (t = 2.6, p = .01). The results of both studies suggest that the new scale appears to be more reliable and more sensitive to experimental outcomes than Templer's scale.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Kane

A. C.

and Hogan

J. D.

, Death Anxiety in Physicians: Defensive Style, Medical Specialty, and Exposure to Death, Omega, 16:1, pp. 11–22, 1985.

Schell

B. H.

and Zinger

J. T.

, Death Anxiety Scale Means and Standard Deviations for Ontario Undergraduates and Funeral Directors, Psychological Reports, 54, pp. 439–446, 1984.

Hayslip

Jr. and Walling

M. L.

, Impact of Hospice Volunteer Training on Death Anxiety and Locus of Control, Omega, 16:3, pp. 243–254, 1985–86.

Conte

H. R.

Weiner

M. B.

, and Plutchik

, Measuring Death Anxiety: Conceptual, Psychometric, and Factor-Analytic Aspects, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 43:4, pp. 775–785, 1982.

Dodd

D. K.

and Mills

L. L.

, FADIS: A Measure of the Fear of Accidental Death and Injury, The Psychological Record, 35, pp. 269–275, 1985.

Warren

W. G.

, Death Education and Research: Critical Perspectives, Haworth Press, New York, 1989.

Templer

D. I.

, The Construction and Validation of a Death Anxiety Scale, in Death Anxiety: A Volume in MSS' Series on Attitudes toward Death, Montefiore

C. H. W.

Cautela

J. R.

Butler

R. N.

(eds.), MSS Information Corporation, New York, pp. 80–91, 1970.

Robbins

R. A.

, Gender and Sex-Role Stereotypes in Scales of Death Concern, Death Studies, 13, pp. 579–591, 1989.

Guilford

J. P.

, Psychometric Methods, McGraw Hill, New York, 1954.

10.

Mitchell

and Jolley

, Research Design Explained, Holt, Rinehard, & Winston, New York, 1988.

11.

Velicer

W. F.

DiClemente

C. C.

, and Corriveau

D. P.

, Item Format and the Structure of the Personal Orientation Inventory, Applied Psychological Measurement, 8:4, pp. 409–419, 1984.

12.

Velicer

W. F.

Govia

J. M.

Cherico

N. P.

, and Corriveau

D. P.

, Item Format and the Structure of the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory, Aggressive Behavior, 11:1, pp. 65–82, 1985.

13.

Paradis

L. S.

, Hospice Handbook: A Guide for Managers and Planners, Aspen Systems, Maryland, 1985.

14.

Dickstein

L. S.

, Death Concern: Measurement and Correlates, Psychological Reports, 30, pp. 563–571, 1972.

15.

Handal

P. J.

Peal

R. L.

Napoli

J. G.

, and Austin

H. R.

, The Relationship between Direct and Indirect Measures of Death Anxiety, Omega, 15:3, pp. 245–262, 1984–85.

16.

Robbins

R. A.

, Bugen's Coping with Death Scale: Reliability and Further Validation, Omega, 22:4, pp. 287–299, 1990–91.

17.

Lester

, The Lester Attitude toward Death Scale, Omega, 23:1, pp. 67–75, 1991.

18.

Cohen

R. J.

Montague

Nathanson

L. S.

, and Swerdik

M. E.

, Psychological Testing: An Introduction to Tests and Measurement, Mayfield Publishing Company, California, 1988.