This study had four basic purposes: The first purpose was to examine
the dimensions of personal meanings of death (PMDS) perceived by
university students. Secondly, understanding how these meanings and self
reported religiosity contribute to predict death anxiety / third to predict death
fear from PMDS and self reported religiosity. Lastly, to investigate gender
differences between females and males in terms of personal meanings of
death, death anxiety and death fear.
The sample consisted of 498 undergraduate students from METU, of
whom 271 were male and 227 female. Three instruments-Personal Meanings
of Death Scale (PMDS), Templer&rsquo / s Death Anxiety (DAS) and Collet & / Lester
Fear of Death Scale (FDS)- and a demographic Data Form were
administered to participants. Turkish versions of DAS (Ertufan, 2000) and
FDS (Ertufan, 2000) were used. Factor analysis was employed to investigate
dimensions of Personal Meanings of Death Scale (PMDS) in Turkish
university sample. Secondly, t-test was conducted to investigate gender
differences in terms of personal meanings of death, death anxiety and death
fear. A stepwise multiple regression analysis was conducted to evaluate how
Personal Meanings of Death and self reported religiosity predicted death
anxiety and death fear of Turkish University students.
Results of the factor analysis of PMDS revealed three factors,
extinction, afterlife, motivation/legacy. Results indicated that there was
significant gender differences in terms of &ldquo / extinction&rdquo / dimension of death,
females had significantly higher mean scores on &ldquo / extinction&rdquo / dimension than
males. Additionally, there was significant gender difference in terms of death
anxiety and death fear, in that, females had higher scores on both death
anxiety and death fear. Results of stepwise regression analysis indicated that
extinction is the main predictor of both death anxiety and death fear.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:METU/oai:etd.lib.metu.edu.tr:http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/3/12606559/index.pdf |
| Date | 01 August 2005 |
| Creators | Kocanoglu, Aysel |
| Contributors | Demir, Ayhan |
| Publisher | METU |
| Source Sets | Middle East Technical Univ. |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | M.S. Thesis |
| Format | text/pdf |
| Rights | To liberate the content for public access |
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