Death imagery and death anxiety.

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between positive/negative death imagery and death anxiety. Subjects were 179 undergraduate students at a large, private, midwestern university. Results reveal that on five measures of death anxiety the subjects with low death anxiety scores had significantly more positive death images than did those with high death anxiety scores. The few subjects who imagined death to be young (N = 14) had a significantly more positive image of death than those who perceived it to be an old person. Death was seen as male by 92% of the male respondents and 74% of the female respondents. Significant differences in death imagery and death anxiety were found between subjects enrolled in an introductory psychology course and those enrolled in a thanatology course. No sex differences in death anxiety or positive/negative death imagery were found.