Death Perspectives Scales

Early Christian martyrdom and the psychology of depression, suicide, and bodily mutilation.

“…Though not without exception (Beit-Hallahmi, 1975;Feifel, 1974;Templer & Dotson, 1970), studies of death anxiety support the commonsense notions that religious belief and practice are associated with felt nearness to God (Stewart, 1975) and with a distinct attitude toward death and afterlife (Kahoe & Dum, 1975;Templer, 1972). The following, more specific conclusions are applicable to those whose religiousness is relatively intense, and is felt to be generated internally rather than growing from adherence to external religious forms: Such persons fear death less (Templer, 1972); shift focus more readily from self to others when faced with death (Lester, 1970); feel greater conviction in existence of afterlife (Spilkaetal., 1977;Templer & Ruff, 1975); have less concern about their status in afterlife (Bolt, 1977); and more rarely evaluate death as an undesirable event caused by personal failure, biological cause alone, or some unknown factor (Spilka et al, 1977). Other studies show that a sense of powerlessness and loss of control is correlated with greater death anxiety (Kurlychek, 1976;Minton & Spilka, 1976), and the frequency of enacting religious practices with lessening of death anxiety (Stewart, 1975).…”