Correlational studies of the fear of death completed over the last decade are reviewed. Research topics, trends, and findings are compared to earlier research on death anxiety correlates. Emphasis is placed on definitions of the construct, measurement techniques, concepts of death, and the variables of sex, age, occupation, socioeconomic status, value orientation, levels of awareness, and relationships between death anxiety and an array of personality variables. Suggestions for future areas of research are made.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
LesterD., Experimental and Correlational Studies of the Fear of Death, Psychological Bulletin, 67, pp. 27–36, 1967.
2.
KastenbaumR. and AisenbergI., The Psychology of Death, Springer, New York, 1972.
3.
BellB., Experimental Manipulation of Death Attitudes, Omega, 6, pp. 199–204, 1975.
4.
MalcolmT. J., The Effects of Ease of Denial on Perceiving and Adapting to Ideas about Personal Death, Dissertation Abstracts International, 33, p. 3351, 1973.
5.
Kubler-RossE., On Death and Dying, MacMillan, New York, 1969.
6.
WeismanA. D., On Dying and Denying, Behavioral Publications, New York, 1972.
7.
MartinD. and WrightsmanL. S., Religion and Fear about Death - A Review, Religious Education, 59, pp. 174–176, 1964.
8.
CollettL. and LesterD., The Fear of Death and the Fear of Dying, Journal of Psychology, 72, pp. 179–181, 1969.
9.
ChoronJ., Modern Man and Immortality, MacMillan, New York, 1964.
10.
NelsonL. D. and NelsonC. C., A Factor Analytic Inquiry into the Multidimensionality of Death Anxiety, Omega, 6, pp. 171–178, 1975.
11.
StoutL.MintonB., and SpilkaB., The Construction and Validation of Multidimensional Measures of Death Anxiety and Death Perspectives, paper presented at the convention of the Rocky Mountain Psychological Association, Phoenix, Arizona, 1976.
12.
BoyarJ., The Construction and Partial Validation of a Scale for the Measurement of the Fear of Death, Dissertation Abstracts International, 25, p. 2041, 1964.
13.
DicksteinL. S., Death Concern: Measurement and Correlates, Psychological Reports, 30, pp. 563–571, 1972.
14.
DurlakJ. A., Relationship between Various Measures of Death Concern and Fear of Death, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 41, p. 1962, 1973.
15.
TemplerD., The Construction and Validation of a Death Anxiety Scale, Journal of General Psychology, 82, pp. 165–177, 1970.
16.
FeifelH. and JonesR. B., Perception of Death as Related to Nearness to Death, Proceedings of the 76th Annual Convention, American Psychological Association, 3, pp. 545–546, 1968.
17.
KimseyL. R., et al., Death, Dying, and Denial in the Aged, American Journal of Psychiatry, 29, pp. 161–165, 1972.
18.
TemplerD., The Relationship between Verbalized and Nonverbalized Death Anxiety, Journal of Genetic Psychology, 119, pp. 211–214, 1971.
19.
TemplerD. and RuffC., Death Anxiety: Scale Means, Standard Deviations, and Embedding, Psychological Reports, 29, pp. 173–174, 1971.
20.
BermanA. L. and HaysJ. H., Relation between Death Anxiety, Belief in Afterlife, and Locus of Control, Journal of Counsulting and Clinical Psychology, 41, p. 318, 1973.
21.
IammarinoN., Relationship between Death Anxiety and Demographic Variables, Psychological Reports, 37, p. 262, 1976.
22.
LesterD., Studies in Death Attitudes, II, Psychological Reports, 30, p. 440, 1972.
23.
McDonaldN., Death Anxiety and Risk Taking, Omega, 1977, in press.
24.
RayJ. J. and NajmanJ., Death Anxiety and Death Acceptance: A Preliminary Approach, Omega, 5, pp. 311–315, 1974.
25.
TemplerD.LesterD., and RuffC., Fear of Death and Femininity, Psychological Reports, 35, p. 530, 1974.
26.
ChristP., Attitudes Toward Death Among a Group of Acute Geriatric Psychiatric Patients, Journal of Gerontology, 16, pp. 56–59, 1961.
27.
JeffersF. C.NicholsC. R., and EisdorferC., Attitudes of Older Persons to Death, Journal of Gerontology, 16, pp. 53–56, 1961.
28.
PollakJ. M., Relationships Between Psychoanalytic Personality Pattern, Death Anxiety, and Self Actualization, unpublished doctoral dissertation, Boston College, 1977.
29.
RhudickP. J. and DibnerA. S., Age, Personality and Health Correlates of Death Concern in Normal Age Individuals, Journal of Gerontology, 16, pp. 44–49, 1961.
30.
SwensonW. M., Attitudes Toward Death in an Aged Population, Journal of Gerontology, 16, pp. 49–52, 1961.
31.
PeckS., The Development of the Concept of Death in Male Children, Dissertation Abstracts International, 27, p. 1294, 1966.
32.
BlakeB., Attitudes Toward Death as a Function of Developmental Stages, Dissertation Abstracts International, 10, pp. 33–34, 1973.
33.
BolducJ., A Developmental Study of the Relationship between Experiences of Death and Age and Development of the Concept of Death, Dissertation Abstracts International, 32, pp. 7302–7303, 1972.
34.
TemplerD.RuffC., and FranksC., Death Anxiety: Age, Sex and Parental Resemblance in Diverse Populations, Developmental Psychology, 4, p. 108, 1971.
35.
FarleyG., An Investigation of Death and the Sense of Competence, Dissertation Abstracts International, 31, p. 7595, 1971.
36.
FeifelH.HansonS.JonesR., and EdwardsI.Physicians Consider Death, Proceedings of the 75th Annual Convention, American Psychological Association, 2, pp. 201–202, 1967.
37.
LesterD.GettyL., and KneislC. R., Attitudes of Nursing Students and Nursing Faculty Toward Death, Nursing Research, 23, pp. 50–53, 1974.
38.
FordR. E.AlexanderM., and LesterD., Fear of Death of Those in a High Stress Occupation, Psychological Reports, 291, p. 502, 1971.
39.
AlexanderM. and LesterD., Fear of Death in Parachute Jumpers, Perceptual and Motor Skills, 34, p. 338, 1972.
40.
TolorA. and ReznikoffM., Relation between Insight, Repression-Sensitization, Internal-External Control, and Death Anxiety, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 72, pp. 426–430, 1967.
41.
RotterJ., Generalized Expectancies for Internal vs. External Control of Reinforcement, Psychological Monographs, 80, (1, whole no. 6a9), 1966.
42.
HandalP. and RychlakJ., Curvilinearity between Dream Content and Death Anxiety and the Relationship of Death Anxiety to Repression-Sensitization, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 77, pp. 11–16, 1971.
43.
ParisJ. and GoodsteinC., Responses to Death and Sex Stimulus Materials as a Function of Repression-Sensitization, Psychological Reports, 19, pp. 1283–1291, 1966.
44.
FouldsM. L. and WarehimeR. G., Relationship between Repression-Sensitization and a Measure of Self Actualization, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 36, pp. 1253–1259, 1971.
45.
MisharaB. L.BakerA. H., and KostinI. W., Do People Who Seek Less Environmental Stimulation Avoid Thinking About the Future and Their Death, Proceedings of the 80th Annual Convention, American Psychological Association, 7, pp. 667–668, 1972.
46.
BascueC., Relationship of Time Orientation and Time Attitudes to Death Anxiety in Elderly People, Dissertation Abstracts International, 34, pp. 866–867, 1973.
47.
CalabresiR. and CohenJ., Personality and Time Attitudes, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 73, pp. 431–439, 1968.
48.
DicksteinL. S., Self-Report and Fantasy Correlates of Death Concern, Psychological Reports, 37, pp. 563–571, 1976.
49.
DicksteinL. S. and BlattS., Death Concern, Futurity, and Anticipation, Journal of Consulting Psychology, 30, pp. 11–17, 1966.
50.
NogasC.SchweitzerK., and GrumetJ., An Investigation of Death Anxiety, Sense of Competence, and Need for Achievement, Omega, 5, pp. 245–255, 1974.
51.
BlazerJ. A., The Relationship between Meaning in Life and Fear of Death, Psychology, 10, pp. 33–34, 1973.
52.
DurlakJ. A., Relationship between Attitudes Toward Life and Death Among Elderly Women, Developmental Psychology, 8, p. 146, 1972.
53.
DurlakJ. A., Relationship between Individual Attitudes Toward Life and Death, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 39, p. 463, 1972.
54.
FranklV., The Doctor and the Soul, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1965.
55.
WeschJ., Self Actualization and Fear of Death, Dissertation Abstracts International, 31, pp. 6270–6271, 1971.
56.
BraunJ. R. and AstaP., Intercorrelations between Personal Orientation Inventory and Gordon Personal Inventory Scores, Psychological Reports, 23, pp. 1197–1198, 1968.
57.
DammV., Creativity and Intelligence: Research Implications for Equal Emphasis in High School, Exceptional Children, 36, pp. 565–570, 1970.
58.
MaslowA., A Theory of Meta-Motivation, Humanitas, 4, pp. 301–343, 1969.
59.
SchwartzM. and GainesL., Self Actualization and the Human Tendency for Varied Experience, Journal of Personality Assessment, 38, pp. 423–427, 1974.
60.
SchwartzS.ReynoldsE.StoutL., and SpilkaB., Creative Thinking, Death Perspectives, and Death Anxiety, paper presented at the convention of the Rocky Mountain Psychological Association, Phoenix, Arizona, 1976.
61.
LesterD. and CollettL., Fear of Death and Self-Ideal Discrepancy, Archives of the Foundation of Thanatology, 21, p. 130, 1970.
62.
SelveyC. L., Concerns about Death in Relation to Sex, Dependency, Guilt about Hostility, and Feelings of Powerlessness, Dissertation Abstracts International, 31, p. 5641, 1971.
63.
MintonB. and SpilkaB., Perspectives on Death in Relation to Powerlessness and Form of Personal Religion, Omega, 7, pp. 261–268, 1976.
64.
GreenbergI. M., Attitudes Toward Death in Schizophrenia, Journal of the Hillside Hospital, 13, pp. 104–113, 1964.
65.
FeifelH., Attitudes of Mentally III Patients Toward Death, Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 122, pp. 375–380, 1955.
66.
BrodmanK.ErdmannA. J., and WolffH. G., Manual for the Cornell Medical Index, Cornell University Medical College, Ithaca, New York, 1956.
67.
LesterD. and SchumacherJ., Schizophrenia and Death Concern, Journal of Projective Techniques and Personality Assessment, 33, pp. 403–405, 1969.
68.
FeifelH. and HermannL. J., Fear of Death in the Mentally Ill, Psychological Reports, 33, pp. 931–938, 1973.
69.
HandalP., The Relationship between Subjective Life Expectancy, Death Anxiety and General Anxiety, Journal of Clinical Psychology, 25, pp. 39–42, 1969.
70.
LucasA., A Comparative Study of Measures of General Anxiety and Death Anxiety among Three Medical Groups Including Patient and Wife, Omega, 5, pp. 233–243, 1974.
71.
TemplerD., Death Anxiety: Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Cigarette Smoking, Omega, 3, pp. 53–56, 1972.
72.
FastI. and PawlJ. H., The Sense of Being Dead and Dying, Journal of Projective Techniques and Personality Assessment, 34, pp. 190–193, 1970.
73.
TemplerD., Death Anxiety as Related to Depression and Health of Retired Persons, Journal of Gerontology, 26, pp. 521–523, 1971.
74.
MosesM., Considering Death and Dying: Affective Correlates, Dissertation Abstracts International, 34, pp. 877–878, 1973.
75.
LazareA.KlermanG. L., and ArmorD. J., Oral, Obsessive, and Hysterical Personality Patterns, Archives of General Psychiatry, 14, pp. 624–630, 1966.
76.
LazareA.KlermanG. L., and ArmorD. J., Oral, Obsessive, and Hysterical Personality Patterns, Journal of Psychiatric Research, 7, pp. 275–279, 1970.
77.
FeifelH., Attitudes Toward Death: A Psychological Perspective, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 33, pp. 292–295, 1969.
78.
LaingR. D., The Divided Self, Penguin, Baltimore, Maryland, 1965.
79.
LiftonR. J., On Death and the Continuity of Life, History of Childhood Quarterly: The Journal of Psychohistory, 1, pp. 681–696, 1974.
80.
SearlesH., Schizophrenia and the Inevitability of Death, Psychiatric Quarterly, 35, pp. 631–665, 1961.
81.
FeldmanM. and HersenM., Attitudes Toward Death in Nightmare Subjects, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 72, pp. 421–425, 1967.
82.
HersenM., Personality Characteristics of Nightmare Subjects, Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 53, pp. 27–31, 1971.
83.
LesterD., The Fear of Death of Those Who Have Nightmares, Journal of Psychology, 69, pp. 245–247, 1968.
84.
LesterD., Fear of Death in Suicidal Persons, Psychological Reports, 20, pp. 1077–1078, 1967.
85.
LesterD., Attitudes toward Death and Suicide in a Non-Disturbed Population, Psychological Reports, 29, p. 386, 1971.
86.
LesterD., Inconsistency in the Fear of Death of Individuals, Psychological Reports, 20, p. 1084, 1967.
87.
LesterD., Studies on Death Attitude Scales, Psychological Reports, 24, p. 182, 1969.
88.
LesterD., Religious Behavior and the Fear of Death, Omega, 1, pp. 181–188, 1970.
89.
BakshisR., Meanings toward Death: A TST Strategy, Omega, 5, pp. 161–179, 1974.
90.
DumontR. G. and FossD. C., The American View of Death: Acceptance or Denial, Schenkman Publishing Company, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1972.
91.
FeifelH. and BranscombA. B., Who's Afraid of Death?, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 81, pp. 282–288, 1973.
92.
MiddletonW. C., Some Reactions toward Death Among College Students, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 31, pp. 295–299, 1936.
93.
BeckerE., The Denial of Death, Free Press, New York, 1974.
94.
DonaldsonP., Denying Death: A Note Regarding Some Ambiguities in the Current Discussion, Omega, 3, pp. 285–290, 1972.
95.
AlexanderI. E. and AdlersteinA. M., Studies in the Psychology of Death, In: Perspectives in Personality Research, DavidH. P. and BrengelmannJ. C. (eds.), Springer, New York, 1960.
96.
MeissnerW. W., Affective Responses to Psychoanalytic Death Symbols, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 56, pp. 295–299, 1958.
97.
GoldingS. C.AtwoodG. E., and GoldmanG. A., Anxiety and Two Cognitive Forms of Resistance to the Idea of Death, Psychological Reports, 18, pp. 356–364, 1966.
98.
LevitonD., The Perceptual Defense of Amateur Sports Car Racers and Bowlers to Death and Crash Word Stimuli, Dissertation Abstracts International, 28, pp. 2540–2541, 1968.
99.
LesterD. and LesterG., The Fear of Death, the Fear of Dying, and Threshold Differences for Death Words and Neutral Words, Omega, 1, pp. 175–179, 1970.
100.
BermanA. C., Smoking Behavior: How is it Related to Locus of Control, Death Anxiety, and Belief in Afterlife?, Omega, 4, pp. 149–155, 1973.
101.
ChasinB. H., Value Orientations and Attitudes Toward Death, Dissertation Abstracts International, 29, p. 1963, 1968.
102.
SpilkaB.PelligriniR. J., and DaileyK., American Values and Death Perspectives, Sociological Symposium, 1, pp. 57–66, 1968.
103.
McClellandD. C., The Harlequin Complex, In: The Study of Lives, WhiteR. (ed.), Prentice-Hall, New York, pp. 95–119, 1963.
104.
GreenbergerE., Fantasies of Women Confronting Death, Journal of Consulting Psychology, 29, pp. 252–260, 1965.
105.
PapageorgisG., On the Ambivalence of Death: The Case of the Missing Harlequin, Psychological Reports, 19, pp. 325–326, 1966.
106.
SarnoffI. and CorwinS. M., Castration Anxiety and the Fear of Death, Journal of Personality, 27, pp. 374–385, 1959.
107.
KastenbaumR. and CostaP. T.Jr., Psychological Perspectives on Death, Annual Review of Psychology, 28, pp. 225–249, 1977.
