Research Proposal: Death Anxiety

Society is face to face with death every day. However, some people are more at ease with the idea of dying than others. The fear of death and dying is commonly referred to as "death anxiety", and has been studied by many researchers.

The primary purpose of the proposed study is to determine if there is a correlation between age and death anxiety. Research will be conducted to determine if the age of a person has any relation to a score on the Templer Death Anxiety Scale (Templer 1970).

Although death is an inevitable part of life, studying death in psychology was not tolerated until the mid-20^th century (1990). At this time, society experienced a change in the interest from the spiritual to the scientific. This is when death really began to carry a negative connotation, because people in society actually began to allow themselves to wonder what death meant (1990). In 1970, Templer devised a death anxiety scale , originally written with 40 questions, but whittled down to only 15(Templer 1970). Test retest reliability and internal consistency were measured for the scale. The validity was measured in two projects; one in which patients with high death anxiety scored higher on the scale than the control group, and one which was correlated with another death anxiety questionnaire (1970). Davis, Bremer, Anderson and Tramill (1983) tested undergraduate students on their ego strength, self-esteem, death anxiety and gender. They used the Templer Death Anxiety Scale to measure death anxiety. They found a negative relationship between death anxiety, self esteem, and ego strength by both males and females, but the males showed lower death anxiety scores. Rasmussen and Bram(1996) studied the relationship of death anxiety to age and the relationship of death anxiety to psychosocial maturity. Their study showed that there was a relationship among death anxiety and age, as well as psychosocial maturity and age. They found psychosocial maturity to be a better predictor of level of death anxiety than age. Both psychosocial maturity and death anxiety were negatively correlated with death anxiety. In the proposed research study, death anxiety will be examined as a function of age. The levels of death anxiety in a sample of college students and another sample of older adults will be examined. It is hypothesized that the college students will have a significantly higher level of death anxiety than the older adults.

Method

Design
The proposed study will be a non-experiment. The variable which will be measured is death anxiety. Death anxiety will be measured using the Templer Death Anxiety Scale (1970).
Participants
Participants will be solicited from students at Coastal Carolina University and various nursing homes in Aiken, SC. The researcher anticipates that there will be 50 students (25 men and 25 women) and 50 older adults(25 men and 25 women). Participation will be voluntary and there will be no incentives offered.

Materials
The materials will include the Templer Death Anxiety Scale, a brief demographic form and an informed consent form. The researcher has obtained a copy of the Templer Death Anxiety Scale and has permission to reproduce copies for the proposed study. The Templer Death Anxiety Scale is a 15 item true-false, self-report survey. Templer Death Anxiety Scale measures emotional reactions to death and dying. The researcher will develop a brief demographic survey and the informed consent form. Each of these forms will be printed on 22 x 28 cm white bond paper. The informed consent form will explain the study and achieve written permission to use participants' scores on the fear of death scale for research purposes. The brief demographic form will provide spaces for each participant to indicate gender and age. Packets will be prepared by placing a copy of the brief demographic survey, the informed consent form, a copy of the Templer Death Anxiety Scale and a sheet printed with the researcher's name and e-mail address with instructions on how to obtain results of the study in a 23 x 30 envelope.

Procedure
The researcher will meet with professors at the university to describe the study and request permission to solicit students in those professors' classes to participate in the study. The professors will be told that the study will take approximately 10 minutes of lecture time. If permission is obtained, the researcher will schedule a date and time to solicit students.

On the scheduled date and time, the researcher will enter the classroom, introduce herself, and describe the study to the class. Information given regarding the study will be standardized and presented the same way in each class. Students who volunteer to participate will be given the packet of materials. The participants will be asked to read and sign the informed consent form. Participants will be assured that their scores will remain anonymous. Participants will then be asked to complete the Templer Death Anxiety Scales. The participants will be asked to return all materials, (with the exception of the information sheet with the researcher's name and contact information) to the 23 x 30 cm envelope and turn the envelope in to the researcher. After all data has been gathered, the researcher will send a copy of the results to each professor and thank the professors for their cooperation. At this time participants will be able to contact the researcher if interested in obtaining results of the study.

The researcher will repeat this process in various nursing homes in Aiken, SC. Permission will be obtained from the director of each nursing home and the member of the staff on duty during the procedure, and no elderly person will be allowed to participate unless coherency is approved by a member of the faculty. Permission will also be obtained from the elderly participants.

Results
A score on the Templer Death Anxiety Scale will be recorded for each participant. Means and standard deviations will be calculated for each group of participants. An independent t-test will be conducted to determine if differences in the mean scores between groups are statistically different. The statistical significance will be evaluated with the alpha level set at .05.