PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH ON DEATH ATTITUDES: AN OVERVIEW AND EVALUATION

Abstract

One of the most substantial legacies of Herman Feifel was his pioneering research on attitudes toward death and dying in a variety of populations. The authors review the large and multifaceted literature on death anxiety, fear, threat and acceptance, focusing on the attitudes toward death and dying of relevant professional and patient groups, and the relationship of death concern to aging, physical and mental health, religiosity, and terror management strategies. We conclude with several recommendations for improving the conceptual and practical yield of future work in this area.

Notes

¹Portions of this chapter have been adapted and expanded from Neimeyer and Fortner (1997), updating the earlier coverage to provide an orientation to the contemporary literature.

²Other studies have also found no difference between physicians from different specialties—oncology, internal medicine, surgery, psychiatry, and pediatrics—In regards to level of death fear (Cochrane, Levy, Fryer, & Oglesby, 1990; Hamama-Raz, Solomon, & Ohry, 2000).

³In fact, the importance of understanding the relationship between death anxiety and depression led Templer et al. (1990) to construct a Death Depression Scale, which, ironically had to be revised as scores on the original scale were found to have very high correlations with other measures of death anxiety.

⁴Indeed, steps have been taken, albeit slowly, in this direction in the burgeoning literature on spirituality and health; see Koenig, McCullough, and Larson (2001).