The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of a death education laboratory approach on the participants. Measures of death anxiety, general anxiety, and self-concept were thought to be of particular importance and thus were used as dependent variables. The study was designed to obtain measures of the variables through appropriate testing administered immediately following participation in a death lab and one month after participation in the 16-hour death lab. This design was selected because the possibility exists that anxiety levels may increase during a workshop on death and dying. None of the eight hypotheses in this study were statistically validated. Thus the assumption that the death lab as used in this study would have a positive impact on the participants was rejected. However, non-statistical observations and inferences from analysis of covariance and t-test data suggested that the use of a waiting list control group may have biased the results of the study. A second observation made in this study was that high death anxious treatment group members tended to have reduced anxiety scores on post-testing and low death anxious treatment group members tended to have increased death anxiety scores on post-testing. It is not known if this regression toward the mean effect is a recurring phenomenon in the death lab experience.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc501154 |
| Date | 08 1900 |
| Creators | Thomas, Bruce M. |
| Contributors | Landreth, Garry L., Schneider, Lawrence J., Berg, Robert C., 1938-, McCallon, Earl L. |
| Publisher | North Texas State University |
| Source Sets | University of North Texas |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | vi, 167 leaves, Text |
| Rights | Public, Thomas, Bruce M., Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. |
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