Experimental and correlational studies of the fear of death.

The techniques used to measure the fear of death are reviewed. The effects of demographic variables and personal characteristics are discussed, and the lack of consistency in the different studies is attributed to lack of attention to the consistency and the validity of the measuring instruments and a failure to determine whether the different techniques are assessing the same dimension. The choice of variables is criticized for a lack of relevance to the genesis of the fear of death. Interest in the psychological aspects of death has been growing recently (see, e.g., Kastenbaum, 1965), and two problems have emerged as the focus of this interest. The first of these is the psychological state and the management of the dying patient. The different styles with which people face imminent death have been described, and the role of the doctor and the therapist constructed. The focus of the present paper is that of the second problem, the fear of death. Investigators of the fear of death have not restricted themselves to an examination of dying people, but rather they have used varying samples (which leads of course to difficulties in comparing the different studies and raises the familiar problems of matching samples, volunteer versus nonvolunteer subjects, etc.). Typically, research on dying patients has used a clinical approach with case studies as illustrative material; whereas studies of the fear of death have used simple techniques of measurement and have produced mainly correlational data. In a few instances, the experimenter has manipulated the independent variable. The present purpose is to consider these correlational and experimental studies of the fear of death. The techniques used to study fear of death will be reviewed, previous findings summarized, and new directions for research suggested. A fear of death can have several objects (Becker & Bruner, 1931): fear of one's own death, fear of the death of others, and fear of the effects of death. Usually, the methods of investigation fail to distinguish between these alternatives, which are collectively called fear of death.