EXPERIMENTAL AND CORRELATIONAL STUDIES

OF THE FEAR OF DEATH

Interest in the psychological aspects of these alternatives, which are collectively called
death has been growing recently (see, e.g.,
fear of death.
Kastenbaum, 1965) , and two problems have
emerged as the focus of this interest. The TECHNIQUES
first of these is the psychological state and
the management of the dying patient. The Direct inethDds. The earliest technique
different styles with which people face im- used was the questionnaire. This can be given
minent death have been described, and the anonymously and simultaneously to large
role of the doctor and the therapist con- groups of people. There is the possibility
structed. that the replies may be unrepresentative of
The focus of the present paper is that of the actual beliefs of the subjects, and so it
the second problem, the fear of death. In- is desirable to check the replies by inter-
vestigators of the fear of death have not viewing the subjects. Two measures are pos-
restricted themselves to an examination of sible: the number of people answering a ques-
dying people, but rather they have used tion in a particular way, and the number of
varying samples (which leads of course to people who fail to answer the question.
difficulties in comparing the different studies Middleton (1936), for example, gave a ques-
and raises the familiar problems of matching tionnaire to college students. To the question
samples, volunteer versus nonvolunteer sub- “Do you ever wish you were dead?” 6 males
jects, etc.). out of 337 failed to answer, whereas 110
Typically, research on dying patients has females out of 488 failed to answer. In-
used a clinical approach with case studies formation is gained from both measures.
as illustrative material; whereas studies of the Middleton failed to use the second measure
fear of death have used simple techniques of and, in fact, concluded that there were no
measurement and have produced mainly cor- significant sex differences.
relational data. In a few instances, the experi- Interviews can be given in place of and in
menter has manipulated the independent vari- addition to questionnaires. The questionnaire
able. The present purpose is to consider these may be used as the basis for the interview,
correlational and experimental studies of the which makes it possible to add any questions
fear of death. The techniques used to study that are necessary to determine the subject’s
fear of death will be reviewed, previous find- attitudes. An example here is the work of
ings summarized, and new directions for Schilder (19J6) with murderers. Interviews
research suggested. have also been used with children (Anthony,
A fear of death can have several objects 1940; Nagy, 1948). Information about the
(Becker & Bruner, 1931) : fear of one’s own attitudes of children can also be obtained
death, fear of the death of others, and fear from essays; for example, they can be asked
of the effects or death. Usually, the methods to write down everything that comes into
of investigation fail to distinguish between their minds about death. They can also be
2
7
28 questions of the Terman-Merrill revision of the
Binet test. Moellenhoff (1939) used spontaneous
DAVID material and Rubin ( 1933) aslted subjects to
define words associated with death.
asked to make drawings about death (Nagy, Pro jective techniques. The Thematic Ap-
1948) . perception Test (Murray, 1943 ) has been used
Other techniques used are forced-choice by Rhudick and Dibner ( 1961), who considered
rating scales and checltlists of death atti- themes involving death to indicate preoccupation
tudes. An example here is Swenson ( 1961 ) with death. Shrut (1958) used a sentence
who used items like “happiness,” “don’t think completion test. Caprio ( 1950) used free
of it,” “it will be wonderful,” and “it dis- association and aslted his subjects to recall by
turbs me a great deal.” Bernada (1949) free association their reaction to the idea of
examined the diaries of young girls and death during their youth.
Anthony (1940) used answers to certain Indirect methods. The only technique here is
the use of the psychogalvanic response (PGR)
to words presented in a word asso- ciation test.
Alexander and Adlerstein ( 1958, 1960) have
were less fascinated by newspaper stories
used this technique to study the response to
about death, and were more likely not to
death words, and Meissner (1958) studied the
answer a question on the questionnaire.) As
response to words symbolic or death.
an illustration, 52 % of the males said that
DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES they never wished that they were dead, while
63Jo o( the females replied thus. Of those
Sex. Middletown ( 1936) gave a question- that replied that they did wish for death, the
naire to college students. Some questions al- females tended to wish it more often. Fur-
lowed for a yes-no response, others a fre- ther, only 2 Qc of the males failed to answer
quency estimation, and some were open- the question whereas 2 2 % of the females
ended. He considered the sex differences to failed to answer. It has not been determined
be insignificant, but closer consideration of whether this reflects a general tendency of
his data reveals a difference. Compared to females to omit questions on questionnaires or
males, females thought of their own death whether the omissions are specific to the con-
more and feared death more. (For example, tent of the question.
they wished that they were dead more often Diggory and Rothman (1961 ) had sub-
if they thought of it, though they less often jects compare different consequences of death
thought such a thing. They were more afraid by the method of paired comparisons in order
of death and preferred to be ignorant of to rank the consequences in order of impor-
life after death, and yet they believed more tance. Females feared the dissolution of the
often in a future existence.) On the other body significantly more than males, perhaps
hand, they avoided thoughts of death and since females value themselves in terms of
contact with it. (For example, they imagined physical attractiveness more than males. As
themselves dead less often, dreamt of it less, fits their role, males were concerned with
the care of dependents while females feared
more the pain of dying (in contrast with
their supposedly greater tolerance for pain).
Lowry ( 1965) found that males gave death
themes of violence and frustration to TAT
cards whereas females emphasized loss and
mourning.
Christ ( 1961) found no sex differences in
elderly psychiatric patients. Rhudick and
Dibner (1961) found no relation between
high death concern (as determined by the
TAT) and such demographic variables as
age, sex, occupational status (retired or
working), marital status, or education in
normal elderly subjects. Swenson (1961)
found also that age, sex, source of income,
occupational status, and urban-rural location
had no significant effect on death attitudes;
and JeNers, Nichols, and Eisdorfer (1961)
confirmed these findings, again with elderly
people.
Occupation. Stacey and Markin ( 1952)
gave questionnaires to groups of people and
compared the differences between each group
and the total sample. Engineering students
showed less preoccupation with death and
avoided contact with thoughts of death and
death situations. Law students were much
 29

more concerned with thoughts of death, and his subjects were not matched as were Shrut's
forestry students fell between these two and, further, all the subjects in Shrut’s study
groups. Prisoners were most preoccupied were in the care of an agency.
with death and were more depressed by death Swenson ( 1961) found that an urban or
situations. They also had thought of suicide rural location had no effect on attitudes
and had attempted suicide more frequently. l toward death.
There seems to be little sense in the choice
Marital status. Swenson ( 1961) found that
of these occupational categories. It would be
elderly widowed people tended to evade the
more appropriate to compare, for example,
question of death; while single, separated,
those with jobs that involve great risk with
and married people tended to look forward
those in occupations with little risk.
to death more. However, Rhudick and Dibner
Swenson (1961 ), Jeffers et al. (1961), and (1961) found no diferences among these
Rhudick and Dibner ( 1961) found no dif- groups.
ferences between elderly people who were Interests and health. Jeffers et al. ( 1961)
retired and those who were working. found that elderly people with fewer leisure
Residence. Shrut (1958) studied older activities had a greater fear of death. Klopfer
persons. Institutionalized white Jewish fe- ( 1947 ) found that the fear of death among
males, currently unmarried, were given a people in a home for the aged was signifi-
questionnaire for self-appraisal of health, ad- cantly lessened when greater activity was
justment in the home, participation in cur- possible. Swenson ( 1961) found that elderly
rent activities, a sentence completion test, people with very many or very few outside
and the TAT. The subjects differed in their interests tended to evade the issue, as did
living arrangements. One group was in a those with good health. Those with poor
traditional central residential facility, the health looked forward to death in a more
others lived in more independently situated positive manner. Opposed to this is the find-
apartment dwellings run by the same agency. ing of Christ ( 1961) that elderly patients
Both groups were of similar health as rated with better health feared death less.
by their physicians. Those living more inde- Education. Swenson (1961) found that
pendently showed significantly less fear of less educated elderly people tended to evade the
death and less preoccupation with it. They issue of death more than those with more
made more realistic estimates of their health, education. College trained adults expressed
whereas the institutionalized subjects over- themselves more specifically, regardless of
estimated their good health. Swenson (1961) whether they feared death or looked forward
found, however, that people in homes for the to it. Jeffers et al. ( 1961) found that low IQ
aged had a more positive, forward-looking was associated with more fear of death.
attitude ° than those living alone. However, Christ ( 1961) and Rhudick and Dibner
( 1961) found no effect of the amount of
' Lester (1966b) also found that those who feared
death more avoided death less. In this study, it schooling. Maurer ( 1964) analyzed the con-
was found that those who had threatened suicide tent of essays on death by 172 adolescents.
had a greater fear of death than those who had She judged the degree of maturity in dealing
contemplated suicide, who in turn had a greater with death to be related to academic achieve-
fear than those who had never contemplated suicide.
This finding must be regarded as tentative, since,
ment. Those with poor academic achieve-
although the diderence was signihcant, the number ment had a fear that was pervasive and com-
of subjects was small. municated indirectly, with euphemisms and
° Swenson’s terminology requires some clarifica- similes. Those with high achievement were
tion. He gave his subjects a checklist of 35 death sophisticated in their attitude and accepted
attitudes. He identified two clusters. One seemed
to him to describe a positive or f orward-looming the inevitability of death. Stacey and Reichen
attitude toward death (“it will be wonderful”) , the (1954) gave normal girls and institutional-
other an “actively-evasive” attitude toward death ized subnormal girls a questionnaire. The
(“I don’t think about death”) . He found no cluster subnormal girls were more emotional and
that might indicate a fear of death, but this could
be the result of his selection of items. fearful about death, but their imagination
regarding death was more limited. However,
50 D APID LESTER

institutionalization has been noted above to picture of his world. Nagy ( 1958) found that
affect death fears and so is a confounding little children see old age and illness as the
factor in this study. cause of death. Later, at school age, moral
The conclusion can be drawn from these purposes are added. Early in life, the only
studies that as mental age increases, fear changes that they see after death are physi-
of death is reduced. Diggory and Rothman cal; later, the concept of a soul and im-
( 1961) found that the middle class fears the mortality appear. Safier ( 1964) studied the
pain of dying more than the lower and upper concepts of animism and death in children.
classes. The lower class fears life after death As age increased, the child’s tendency to
more. They have less concern over the affec- attribute animism and death to objects de-
tive consequences for others, which is sur- creased. Within each age group, the responses
prising in view of the supposed importance showed a positive correlation in the develop-
of primary ties for the lower classes. How- ment of these concepts. Safier suggested that
ever, these class differences may be derivative
a common rationale binds the concel•tS Of
of educational differences.
life and death during each stage of develop-
Age. Natterson and Knudson (1960) ment and saw a parallel between Piaget’s
studied 33 children aged 0 to 13 years who (1951) stages of animism and Nagy’s stages
were dying of cancer and diseases of the in the formation of a concept of death.
blood. They were subject to three stresses: Schilder and Wechsler ( 1934) interviewed
separation from the mother, traumatic pro- children in a psychiatric hospital using a
cedures, and the deaths of other children. questionnaire and pictures. The concepts that
Their behavior was observed (especially signs the children stressed were the idea of death
of depression and anxiety) and stories and as a deprivation (that is, the dead cannot
drawings examined. From 0 to 5 years, sepa- move), death as a hostile act by others (for
ration fear was the most intense; from 5 to example, punishment by God or others), and
10, mutilation fear was primary; and from 10 death as a sadistic act. A child does not
years upwards, fear of death predominated. fear to die, they concluded, but he fears to
'l“he older the child, the more urgent, per- be killed. In contrast to Nagy, they found
vasive, and persistent was the fear of death. that death by disease and old age had no
Nagy ( 1948) studied how children aged reality for the child. Jaehner ( 1933), on the
3 to 10 think of death. She used essays, other hand, found that the small child’s atti-
drawings, and discussions to collect data. tude toward death is quite realistic. The
Three stages of development could be dis- child’s first questions concern the dead per-
tinguished. (a) From 3 to 5, they denied son, then the act of dying and what happens
death as a regular or final process. Death after death. Death does not frighten the
was a departure and temporary, and degrees child, although he responds to grief in others.
of death were distinguished. This was seen Children do differ in the ways that they refer
as animistic. (b) From 5 to 9, death was death to themselves. There is a lack of agree-
considered to be a person. Death was seen ment between these studies using children,
as an eventuality, the death man coming to and, although sample differences may explain
carry one off. This was seen as artificialism, the disagreement in part, the sources of the
that is, every event stemming from man. disagreement are not apparent.
(c) From 9 years upwards, death was recog-
Feifel (1956) interviewed elderly white
nized as a process which takes place in us, males in an institution. He noted two main
the dissolution of bodily life. Death was seen attitudes: death as the end of everything and
as inevitable and realism was present. Portz death as the beginning of a new existence.
( 1965) confirmed Nagy’s scheme and found A few people saw death as a relief from pain
that differences in parental anxiety and or as a peaceful sleep. When asked when
parental explanations about death had no they thought people feared death most, 45%
effect. chose 70 years onward, 15 Jo chose the third
The theory that the child has of death
decade of life, and 15% chose the fifth dec-
faithfully reflects at each stage the general
ade. This choice was not related to the spe-
 cific attitude on death that was held. This
Alexander, Colley, and Adlerstein (1957)
analysis is on a different level than those tried to study the unconscious reaction to
done with children. Here it is assumed that death in order to contrast this with the
the subjects see death realistically, and apparent conscious indifference. Response
the emotional attitudes towards death are times and the PGR were measured for 31
investigated. male students to words in a word association
Christ ( 1961), Swenson ( 1961) , Rhudick test. Their responses to words related to
and Dibner (1961), and Jeffers et al. (1961) death were more emotional (that is, had a
found no differences in fear of death that longer response time and a larger PGR)
depended upon age, although, since their sub- than to neutral words drawn from the gen-
jects were elderly people, the age range was eral language, matched for usage and length.
small. Corey (1961) found that in a pro- Alexander and Adlerstein (1958) performed
jective test involving interpretation of pic- this experiment on children aged 5 to 16
tures of reclining people, young adults tended years. All showed an increased emotional
to show acceptance of death and neutraliza- reaction to death words on the latency meas-
tion of affect, whereas older adults tended to ure and the PGR, except for the 9 to 12
show avoidance. year group, which failed to give a significant
Conclusion. It can be seen that much of PGR difference. The authors suggested that
the evidence conflicts. Part of this must be this showed a latency period with regard to
due to the wide variety of subjects used: fears of death in children. Such a conclusion
normal adults, college students, elderly psy- must be regarded with caution, especially
chiatric patients, etc. This makes isolation of since the latency measure did give a signifi-
the important variables difficult. The better cant difference. Meissner (1958) noted the
designed studies, which are by Christ, Corey, PGR of 40 Roman Catholic seminarians to
Rhudick and Dibner, Jeffers et a1., and S 'en- words symbolic of death and to control
son, all in 1961, show that within a single words. The death symbols elicited a more
group, demographic variables have little ef- affective response. The same death symbols
fect on death attitudes. Age will obviously were used to set up a written test of associa-
affect attitudes until mental development is tion in order to obtain an index of the tend-
complete. Thereafter, it would seem that per- ency of the subjects to associate these words
sonality factors and life experiences are the with the idea of death. The symbols were
important determinants of the fear of death. significantly more likely to do so than the
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS control words. (Some of the death symbols
were “bird,” “journey,” “candle burning out,”
Degree oJ consciousness. Empirical evi- and “across the bridge.”) Christ (1961)
dence reveals that on a conscious verbal found that death words elicited a longer
level, people in Western culture do not seem latency in a sample of elderly psychiatric
to be seriously concerned with thoughts of patients.
death. Caprio (1946) claimed, however, that Thus it appears that although a large
death plays an important part in our lives number of people claim to be indifferent to
at the unconscious level. This is evidenced thoughts of death, their automatic systems
by the rituals associated with death (for ex- are not.
ample, the Chinese practice of building one’s
Anxiet y. Castration anxiety causes chronic
own coffin before one dies), man’s striving
anxiety. This may result in fears of bodily
for immortality through procreation and
injury and so be one possible cause of the
fame, and the concern of religions with the
fear of death (the extreme consequence of
problem. Beigler (1957) claimed that there
injury) . Arguing thus, Sarnoff and Corwin
is an unconscious awareness of impending
( 1959) gave 56 male students a question-
death on the part of the patient, and that
naire on the fear of death and measured
this is reacted to with anxiety, which may
their castration anxiety with the castration
be repressed. Such anxiety can be used by
anxiety card of the Blacky test (Blum,
the physician for making a prognosis.
1949). Four weeks later, the subjects were
32 DAVID US TE R

subjected to two levels of sexual arousal by concern over death involves neurotic pre-
having them view nude or clothed pictures
occupations. High death concern was also
of women. The subjects then completed the
associated with high scores on the physical
questionnaire on the fear of death again.
and psychiatric sections of the Cornell Medi-
Subjects with a high level of castration anx-
cal Index (Brodman, Erdmann, & Wolff,
iety showed a significantly greater increase in
1956). Jeffers et al. (1961) found that fear
fear of death after sexual arousal than sub-
of death was associated with feelings of
jects with low castration anxiety. There were
rejection and depression and a smaller num-
no differences for those with low sexual
ber of Rorschach responses. On the other
arousal. floral standards were found to have
hand, Feifel ( 1955 ) found that the degree
no effect on the results.
Boyar (1964) showed students a film, of mental disturbance per se had little effect
either on traffic accidents or on traffic con- on the overall attitudes of patients to death.
gestion. Before and after the film, the sub- E eligion. Religious views do seem, in gen-
jects completed a fear of death scale. Those eral, to influence preoccupation with death.
who had seen the film on accidents showed Feifel ( 1956) suggested that older persons
a significantly greater increase in the fear may resort to a religious outlook in order
of death than those who had seen the film to cope with fears concerning death. A re-
on congestion. Thus it appears that anxiety ligious outlook led people to think more
from many sources can increase the fear of about the different concepts of death, and
death, and the anxiety need not necessarily Feifel suggested that religious people attempt
be castration anxiety. The experiment of to master their anxiety by thinking about
Sarnoff and Corwin may be interpreted as death as the precursor of a new life. Re-
showing that subjects whose anxiety is easily ligious subjects tended to see old age as the
aroused (as measured by the Blacky test) time when people fear death most.
are made anxious by sexually arousing pic- Diggory and Rothman ( 1961) compared
tures and so show an increased fear of death. the fears of the different consequences of
Ps ycho patholog y. Schilder (1936) inter- death. The pain of dying was least feared
viewed murderers and found that those with by Protestants, more by Catholics, and most
psychopathic and psychotic tendencies were by Jews. Catholics feared life after death
much more preoccupied with thoughts of most and Jews feared it least. Any religious
death than those without psychopathic trends. view increased the fear of the affective conse-
Greenberg ( 1964) gave schizophrenics an quences of one’s death on others. Faunce and
interview about death attitudes and scales to Fulton (1958) found that Roman Catholics
measure self-esteem and ego strength. It was and the fundamentalist Protestants were
predicted that there would be an increase in more consistent in their orientation to death.
affect arousal in subjects when they spoke Church-goers tended to have a spiritual
about death, whether or not they were con- rather than a temporal orientation toward
scious of this response. Females showed this, death and to be more consistent in their
but males showed a decrease. For females, orientation.
there was a positive relationship between re- Alexander and Adlerstein ( 1960) took two
sponses to death words and responses to groups of students, one areligious and the
events which fall in the general category of other very religious as measured by the
unpleasant, inevitable occurrences ; but for Josey ( 1950) scale of ieligiosity. Only
males there was no association. There was no Protestants who had not experienced the
correlation between death anxiety and ego death of a relative were used. The groups
strength. were similar on parental status, age, neuroti-
Rhudick and Dibner ( 1961) found that cism, scholastic achievement, and a “goals of
life” inventory. They were given a word
high death concern as assessed by the TAT
association test with PGR measurements, the
was associated with high scores on the MMPI
Cattell ( 1957 ) Manifest Anxiety Scale, a
scales of hypochondriasis, hysteria, depend-
word association test to measure the con-
ency, and impulsivity. They concluded that
notative meanings of words, a questionnaire
 ST UDITS OF THE FEAR OF E EA TM 33

on the fear of death, and an interview. On the studies conflict. It appears, however, that
the word association test, the groups behaved religious belief does not affect the intensity
similarly and their connotative associations of the fear of death, but rather channels the
for death words were similar. However, the fear onto the specific problems that each
religious group showed more manifest anxiety religion proposes.
after the word association test, but there
were no diNerences after the interview. The CONCEPTS OF DEATH
authors concluded that, in the religious stu-
dents, death anxiety was much closer to con- Shrut (1958) distinguished three concepts
sciousness, but religion by no means dis- of death as seen by adults: (o) death as a
tool with which to attempt to derive certain
sipated death anxiety. The nonreligious per-
goals and satisfactions from the environment,
son uses more repression while the religious
as in a threat of suicide; (b) death as a pas-
person is trained to talk of death in a positive
sage to a further life, which may be seen
manner. The undesirable aspect is conscious
as gruesome or glorious and awaited calmly
but not the focus of attention. One’s own
or in fear; and (c) death as an end which
death arouses more anxiety for the religious
we infer. Feifel ( 1956) found that death can
person, however. (The stimulus words were
be seen as a relief from pain or peaceful sleep.
concerned with the concomitant conditions
Death can be seen as a punishment (Caprio,
surrounding death, and so not certain to
1950), a separation (from those one loves on
evoke thoughts of an afterlife.) earth), a reunion (with those in Heaven), or
Swenson ( 1961) found that elderly persons
unreal (as in the thoughts of children). Mc-
with more fundamental religious convictions
Clelland ( 1963) suggested that death can be
as measured by the MMPI (Cottrell, un-
seen as a lover, and indeed Greenberger
dated) looked forward to death more than
( 1965) found that the TAT themes of dying
those with less fundamental convictions.
women contained references to death as a
Jeders et al. ( 1961) found more fear in
punishment and fantasies of illicit sexuality
elderly people who read the Bible less, but
more often than the themes given by women
Christ ( 1961) found no effect from religion
who were not dying.
or religiosity. Alleman ( 1964) studied three
groups or students: believers in afterlife, non-
CAUSES OF THE FEAR OF DEATH
believers, and doubters. She found that col-
lege students saw death as relatively in- Diggory and Rothman ( 1961) suggested
active, negative, and highly potent on the that the higher one’s self-esteem, the more
Semantic Differential Test. The groups dif- death is feared, since death is the limiting
fered in the content but not the structure case of the loss of the self. They believed
of their belief system. Death was seen as that death is feared because it eliminates
spatially and temporally immediate, but emo- one’s opportunities to pursue goals important
tionally remote. Intellectualization was the to one’s self-esteem.
main defense against the fear. Other vari- Hitschmann (1937) traced the develop-
ables, such as expected cause of death and ment of anxiety about one’s own death, or
final activity, did not distinguish the groups. that of others, from guilt feelings over homi-
Kalish (1963 ) used answers to two questions cidal desires. Becker and Bruner (1931) saw
to assess the fear of death of his subjects. the fear of death as an inborn fear together
On this meager evidence, he found no relation with a fear based on the annihilation of the
between the fear of death and a belief in personality. However, they also attributed
God or a life after death. Martin and fear to more mundane causes. For example,
Wrightsman (1965) found no association be- fear of the dead can be due to the unpleas-
tween the fear of death and religious atti- antness of the corpse, its strangeness, social
tudes, but those who participated more in contagion of grief, cultural revulsion, sym-
religious activities had less fear. pathetic interaction (as in chimpanzees), fear
With two levels of awareness under investi- of infection, shoclt, and imagination of
gation and several definitions of religiousness, decay.
DAVID tion, and fear of death. With regard to the fear of
the dead, Freud ( 1938) offered an interesting
Psychoanalysts have speculated upon the explanation. He saw the fear of the dead as a result
causal sequence relating to the fear of suf- of the ambivalent feel- ings in the survivors
focation, fear of maternal loss, fear of castra- combined with the projection of the hostile
component of these feelings onto the dead LRS TER
person. Lester ( 1966a) predicted from this that
societies in which love-oriented techniques of
mension. Mention has already been marle of
punishment are more important should
the classification of Becker and Bruner
manifest a greater fear of the dead than those
(1931) in which they distinguished a fear
socicties in which physical methods are
of one’s own death, a fear of the death of
important. An analysis of cultural data
others, and a fear of the effects of death.
confirmed this prediction.
Chandler ( 1965 ) distinguished reactions to
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS the existence o( death, to the presence of
death, and to the presentiment of death. Re-
In many respects, the studies reported are sponses of a subject will vary depending upon
poor. The consistency and validity of the whether he is instructed to consider his
instruments measuring the fear of death have death or someone else’s death, his death to-
rarely been considered. Three studies alone day or his death 60 years hence, or his death
have attended to these. Boyar ( 1964) con- or death in general.
structed a fear of death scale, and, to assess Finally, the choice of variables has usually
its consistency, he carried out an item analy- been limited to those easily available: sex,
sis and ascertained its split-half consistency religion, psychiatric disturbance, etc. Only
(.89) and its test-retest consistency (.79 for recently has the experimenter created his own
a 10-day interval) . Lester ( 1966b) con- situations (Boyar, 1964; Sarnoff & Corwin,
structed a scale to measure the fear of death 1959) . The effect of physical illness, death
and ascertained its parallel-forms consistency of one’s parents in childhood, loss of close
(.65) and its test-retest consistency (.58 for friends, and other variables which might be
a 6-week interval) . This should become gen- expected not only to correlate with but
eral practice for those studying the fear of also to determine the genesis of the fear of
death. death must be studied. Further, the consist-
The question of validity must also be ency of the individual’s attitudes is an im-
attended to. Boyar considered his study, in portant factor. Does belief in a God affect
which subjects showed a rise in their fear the fear of death? If not, why not? A person
of death after having seen a film on traffic may leave a part of his body to a scientific
accidents, to be a validation procedure. foundation, he may insist on being cremated,
Lester used answers to questions concerning he may enjoy visiting graveyards and reading
thoughts of death and associated behaviors stories about death. These behaviors should
(such as reactions to funerals) as his valida- all be related to attitudes about death. Some
tion criteria. Martin and Wrightsman ( 1965) individuals will have a consistent pattern of
used two measures of the fear of death, a attitudes, whereas others will not. What is
Likert scale and a sentence completion test. the effect on the individual if his attitudes
The correlation between these two measures are inconsistent?
was .46. Apart from these studies, the valid- Although the fear of death has occupied
ity of the instruments has been neglected. psychologists at least since Scott ( 1896) , our
The different techniques used in the understanding of this fear has increased very
studies may not be measuring the same di- little compared to the progress in other areas
x The term “consistency” is preferred to “reli- of psychology. This appears to be the result
ability” (see Heim, 1954) . of a laclc of ingenuity in the choice of
variables and the inadequate measurement
techniques employed.
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(Received March 2 6, 1966)