The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship and effect of a Death Awareness Training program on personal values and value systems. The experimental group experienced Death Awareness Training and the control group participated in an exercise assumed to be unrelated to the experimental group experiences. The Rokeach Value Survey (RVS) for terminal and instrumental values was used to obtain measures of value system change.Prior to the group experiences, the sample of 28 subjects was randomly divided into two groups of fourteen subjects each. The subjects were master's level counseling students. The experimental group (six males and eight females) participated in two hours and five minutes of Death Awareness Training. The control group (seven males and seven females) spent an equivalent amount of time viewing and discussing a videotape on family therapy.The Rokeach Value Survey for terminal and instrumental values was administered to both groups before and after the group experience. The subjects responded to the RVS by rank-ordering both lists of values from one to eighteen, most to least important. The RVS was scored to obtain value change scores for each subject, for both lists of values. Direction of change was not a factor. The value change scores were then subjected to two way analysis of variance. The selected level of significance was .05.The first major null hypothesis--there is no statistically significant difference in value change scores between the experimental group and the control group--was statistically rejected (F = 6.29; df = 1,52; p <.05). Therefore, it was asserted that Death Awareness Training had a statistically significant effect in the reprioritization of personal value systems.The second major null hypothesis--there is no statistically significant difference in value change scores between terminal values and instrumental values--was also statistically rejected (F = 8.29; df = 1,52; p <.05). This indicated that Death Awareness Training caused a statistically significantly greater reprioritization of instrumental values than terminal values.The third major null hypothesis--there is no statistically significant difference in value change scores in the interaction among groups and values--was not statistically rejected (F = 1.56; df = 1,52; P >.05), and therefore not investigated. Since this hypothesis was not rejected, four sub-hypotheses were not investigated and therefore not rejected.The following conclusions were drawn from the study:1. Relatively short periods of Death Awareness Training achieved significant changes in personal value systems.2. Changes in personal value systems resulting from Death Awareness Training may also result in changes in observable behavior.3. Conceptions and meanings of death prior to Death Awareness Training were bases on inaccurate information.4. Personal value systems existing before Death Awareness Training were based on misconceptions, misperceptions, fear, guilt and distorted individual and collective thoughts about death.5. Death Awareness Training created inconsistencies and imbalances in existing value systems causing changes in the value systems designed to remove or reduce the inconsistencies and imbalances.6. Death Awareness Training altered desired modes of conduct more than desired end-states of existence. The perceived end product of life remained basically the same but the quality, in terms of the process of life, was significantly changed as a result of Death Awareness Training.The results of the study indicate that Death Awareness Training can be a useful procedure for counselors, therapists and mental health practitioners of all kinds to assist clients manifesting death and death-related concerns, to explore personal meanings and perceptions of the clients' conceptions of death, to alleviate personal fears concerning their death and the death of significant others, and alter dysfunctional behavior patterns emulating from or in a death context.Since Death Awareness Training resulted in changes in personal value systems, counselor educators may want to consider providing similar training programs to counselors in training. This is necessary so that the value system a counselor will use in the counseling relationship to effect a multitude of decisions and outcomes with a client will not be a value system based on misconceptions, misperceptions, and fear. This is particularly true with, though not limited to, clients manifesting death and death-related concerns.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to determine what are the basic factors that influence one's attitudes toward death. Questions central to the proposed investigation are these:1. What factors can be identified which seem to predispose certain individuals to different types of attitudes toward death?2. What are the general societal participation styles of individuals of the various integration types? Can distinct styles be identified? For example, do those of one type have distinct occupations, marital status, similar residence size, and so forth as compared to those of another type?3. Are there specific differences among the integration types in terms of scores on tests measuring anomie? In other words, do some types have significantly greater amounts of anomie than other types?4. What specific factors are useful in determining an individual's measure of fear of death? Are some distinctions more useful than others in determining attitudes toward death?These questions are basically all interrelated. Tentative hypotheses may be suggested in regard to each of these questions:1. Fear of death varies inversely with the degree of integration of the individual in the social groups of which the individual forms a part.2. Fear of death varies inversely with the degree of internal orientation of the individual.3. Fear of death varies directly with the degree of anomie of the individual.A survey sample of 635 from various occupations, marital statuses, ages, and so forth was used for the study. A Fear of Death Scale was developed and administered along with Srole's Anomia Scale and Neal and Seeman's Internal-External Scale.The data generated indicate that basically fear of death is inversely correlated with the degree of integration of the individual in his or tier social groups. Those with higher rates of anomie did exhibit greater fears toward death. Those people who were more externally oriented also exhibited greater fears toward death. Both findings were predicted.A revision of Emile Durkheim's typology for suicides also yielded some results. The fatalistic type of attitude toward death which sees death as the price for a chosen life-style was tested by including police officers, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, and State Policemen in the sample. All were very low on the fear of death scale as predicted. The anomie type, as already suggested, exhibited greater fears of death as expected. The altruistic type was more difficult to measure. Since the over-fifty category had significantly lower fears of death, it would seem to at least not detract from the theory. Those who saw religion as preparing them for death were also low on the fear of death scale which is also consistent. The egoistic type seemed most prevalent among those persons who had little meaning or purpose in life. Those persons also had higher fear of death scores as expected.The lower level hypotheses were generally also supported with some exceptions. Projected differences in fear of death between males and females were not there. Also, the older the respondent, the lower the fear of death. Had children been included in the sample, this might not nave been the case. A trend also existed in that the larger the size of residence, the higher the fear of death as was also predicted. The predicted differences in occupational categories were not as great as projected, but they were in the direction that was predicted.The best indicators of fear of death, other than the comparative scales used, were the age of the respondent and his or her marital status. Widowed persons were less fearful of death followed by married, divorced, and lastly, by single people as predicted.

From Preface: The present study attempts to explore, both theoretically and empirically, some implications that a personal consideration of death may have for the way we live our lives. Existential-Phenomenology has concerned itself with the description of the dimensions of human existence. It is in this enquiry that Death, and through it, human finitude, emerges as an important dimension of existence. It is not the fact of death itself, but the MEANING it has for our lives which may be of important consequence. It is to this area that this research addresses itself. The methodology employed arises out of a concern to contribute to the establishment of Psychology as a Human Science. To this end, a chapter focusing on the philosophical bases of methodology is included. It is hoped that this study may, however little, contribute both to the field of Thanatology as well as to the more theoretical issue of what Psychology is, and where it is going. / KMBT_363 / Adobe Acrobat 9.53 Paper Capture Plug-in

This study attempts to explore, both theoretically and empirically, death anxiety across the lifespan in Western society. Six elderly women between the ages of 75 and 90 years were interviewed about their current perceptions and attitudes toward their anticipated deaths, and to what extent these perceptions may have altered over the course of the life cycle. It was hypothesized that an acceptance of religion and a belief in an afterlife existence; a sense of having experienced death before, in seeing loved ones die; and a feeling of having lived a meaningful life through the reminiscence of past events would all facilitate an older person's acceptance of anticipated death. An existential phenomenological explication of the protocols revealed that: religion need not necessarily play a major role in this regard; both the life reminiscence process and having experienced death before in seeing loved ones die facilitated acceptance of death; older persons are prepared for death in the sense of experiencing a feeling that their life cycles have been completed; although death may not be feared, many fears of dying are prevalent. It was thus concluded from this study that, although death is not a major preoccupation of the older person, it does still play a significant role in the lives of the elderly in that being aware of impending death allows the older person to regulate her life according to ̕̕̕̕̕ʾtime-left-to-liveʾ

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among death anxiety, attitudes toward disabled persons and counselor effectiveness. The subjects of this study were 50 masters degree students at The University of Arizona. All subjects were volunteers and were enrolled in the Rehabilitation Counseling graduate program. Additionally, they had all completed a five-week Human Resource Development Program. The subjects were individually administered the Death Anxiety Scale (DAS), the Attitudes toward Disabled Persons Scale (ATDP), Form B, and the 16 stimulus expressions from the Carkhuff Communication Index. The stimulus expressions were on audio tape and the subjects' responses were recorded for rating purposes. A t-test of means was used to search for differences between less effective counselor trainees and more effective counselor trainees in their levels of death anxiety and their attitudes toward disabled persons. The relationship among death anxiety, attitudes toward disabled persons and counselor effectiveness was investigated using the Pearson correlation coefficient. In general, the results of the study indicate that less effective counselor trainees do not significantly differ from more effective counselor trainees in either their levels of death anxiety or in their attitudes toward disabled persons. However, a significant negative correlation exists between counselor trainees' levels of death anxiety and their attitudes toward disabled persons. Therefore, counselor trainees with high levels of death anxiety viewed disabled persons as being dissimilar to able-bodied persons.

No description available.

Bereavement is the natural human reaction to the death of a significant other. Often the experience of the bereaved person is denied expression in the social context. The aim of this thesis is to examine what it means to have one's bereavement denied by others. The relevant literature was reviewed. Theories which have both reflected and influenced the way the bereaved are perceived in contemporary western society have been discussed. The historical background to changing attitudes towards death was described and the reasons for the "denial of death" were examined . The narcissistic personality in particular was considered . Using the Phenomenological method, a question was formulated to elicit the lived structure of the experience being researched. This was asked of thirteen voluntary subjects who had experienced the denial of their bereavement by others. Five written answers (protocols) were chosen and explicated. The lived structure of the experience can be described as "a profound and fundamental distancing of the world of the bereaved from the world of others." The implications of this for the bereaved person, bereavement support groups, health care professionals, future research and society as a whole were then critically discussed .

No description available.