FEAR OF DEATH:

TESTING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DEATH ANXIETY, ATTACHMENT AND SELF ESTEEM
Sarah Penny

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There is a negative relationship between Death Anxiety and Self Esteem

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_(personification)

Introduction
Death anxiety refers to fear of one's own death in a physically healthy individual (McCarthy, 1980). Kastenbaum and Aisenberg (1976) found that fear is the psychological state most often mentioned when clinicians or researchers discuss responses or attitudes towards death. To study this response is important because of the effect it is likely to exert upon the individual's ability to cope with the subject of dying, which every person will inevitably confront. Research has found that individuals with high death anxiety also tend to show low levels of self esteem (Greenberg et al., 1992) and insecure attachment style (Stroebe, 2008).
Pollock & Van Reken, (2009). Third Culture Kids: Growing up Among Worlds .Boston, MA: Intercultural Press.

Results
A linear model was used to predict death anxiety from attachment style and self esteem. An alpha level of .10 was used for the analysis, given the exploratory nature of the study. Attachment style was not found to be a significant predictor of death anxiety, F(2, 92)= .522, P=.595. Self esteem was a significant predictor of death anxiety, F(2, 92) =3.59, p=.061. Therefore, the higher a person's death anxiety score, the lower their self esteem score will be.

Objective
The purpose of this study was to find certain predictors of high death anxiety. The overall hypothesis of this study is that individuals who display low self esteem and insecure attachment style (either anxious or avoidant) will also have higher death anxiety scores.

Conclusions
Attachment does not predict Death Anxiety
This study shows that there is a negative relationship between death anxiety and self esteem. However, it shows a rather weak relationship in that about 3% of the variation in the death anxiety scores can be predicted by self esteem. This study could be improved in the future in the following ways; More variation in the sample pool, not just Undergraduates Updated scales to reflect todays multicultural society A different measure of attachment, not just self-identifying into one category

Method
The subjects of this study consisted of 96 Psychology Undergraduate students at York. Subjects were asked to fill out three surveys; Templers Death Anxiety Scale (1970) Hazen & Shavers Attachment Styles (1987) Rosenbergs Self Esteem Scale (1965) The scales were then collected and analyzed to determine if respondents who had high death anxiety scores also had insecure attachment styles and low self esteem scores.

Hazen, C., Shaver, P. (1987). Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 511-524. Rosenberg, M. (1965) Society and the Adolescent Self Image. Princeton, Princeton University Press. Stroebe, S., Hansson, R., Schut, H., Stroebe, W. (2008) Handbook of Bereavement Research and Practices: Advances in Theory and Intervention. Washington: American Psychological Association. Templer, D. I. (1970). The construction and validation of a death anxiety scale. Journal of General Psychology, 82, 165-174

References