Personifications of Death and Death Anxiety

Abstract

University students (n = 165), graduate nursing students (n = 102), and funeral service students (n = 68) completed Templer's Death Anxiety Scale (DAS) and a Death Personification Exercise (DPE). Responses to the DAS and DPE were subjected to principal components factor analysis using varimax rotational procedures and the factor scores derived for each scale were intercorrelated. Prior to this comparison, DPE responses were contrasted using multiple discriminant function analysis. Results showed there was more communality than uniqueness in the factor structures. Interrelations between the nine common DPE and four DAS factors were generally low but did suggest that: (a) perceptions of death as a gay deceiver were related to a cognitive-affective component of death anxiety; while images of death as a gentle comforter or macabre figure were related to an awareness of the passage of time; and (b) reactions to death and descriptions of the activities of death were associated with concern about physical alterations.

Personification of Death, as Seen in Adjective Check List Descriptions, among Funeral Service and University Students

“…In addition, the conclusion that death was described as an overall more positive character by funeral service students than by university students is supported by the differences on the other three ACL scores which did remain significant after partialling out the influence of sex and race. These findings are consistent with Lonetto's (1982) report that morticians tended to personify death most often as a Gentle Comforter, which is the most benign type of death personification identified by Kastenbaum and Aisenberg (1972). Mortuary students may describe death as an overall positive character because they spend more time thinking about death than the general public does.…”

Death Anxiety: An Analysis of an Evolving Concept

“…Because of its grounding in negative emotionality, imagery such as corpse viewing can heighten death anxiety (Lonetto, 1982;Lonetto, Mercer, Fleming, Bunting, & Clare , 1980;McDonald & Hilgendorf, 1986).…”

Role of Social Detachment in Coping With Death Anxiety

“…Since it is practiced collectively by all Kalpvasis in the backdrop of a collective society, hence the sense of self-esteem is enhanced when collective societal practices are followed. Previous research on elderly population shows that those who were highly religious have low death anxiety in comparison to those who were not religious (Cicirelli, 2002; Duff, & Hong, 1995; Koenig et al., 1988; Lonetto & Templer, 1986). In the present study, years of Kalpvas , instead of participant’s age, is lowering death anxiety, since it is slowly increasing the social detachment too.…”

“…McCoy, Pyszczynski, Solomon, and Greenberg (2000) state that “The elderly face a chronic state of mortality salience coupled with a possible lessened capacity to use the cultural worldview or resulting self-esteem to maximally protect self” (p. 45). Research on death anxiety and elderly population also show that those who are highly religious have low death anxiety in comparison to those who are not religious (Cicirelli, 2002; Duff, & Hong, 1995; Koenig, Moberg, & Kvale, 1988; Lonetto & Templer, 1986). Age is perhaps an important determinant in the context of Magh Mela , wherein the major population of the Kalpvas is is elderly.…”