Fear of death of those in a high stress occupation.

Abstract

Feifel, et a1. (2) found that physicians had a higher fear of death than control Ss and suggested that fear of death may have played a role in the choice of profession by the physicians. They may have chosen to be doctors in order to gain mastery over their fear of death. A similar argument could be advanced for those who choose to be policemen, an occupation where preoccupation with danger and death is common (4, p. 42). The present study sought to examine the fear of death in policemen. Ss were 17 male patrolmen from one Buffalo precinct and 15 mail carriers from a postal station in the same area. Ss did not differ in religious denomination or age (age range 23 to 54 yr., median age of police was 34, of mailmen 42). Ss were volunteers and anonymously filled out a questionnaire which included rwo fear of death scales (1, 3) and the semantic differential (utilizing five concepts to be rated on evaluative, potency, and activity scales, including the concepts of life and death). The nvo groups did not differ in their fear for death of self (xa = 0.5, df = 1 on a median test), death of others (x2 = 0.0), dying of self (x' = 0.0), dying of others (x2 = 0.0), general fear of death (x2 = 0.0), and inconsistency in their attitudes toward death (x= = 0.0). The nvo groups did not differ in their ratings of the concepts of life and death on any of the three semantic differential measures (the largest t = 0.86, df = 30). The groups differed on one dimension. A total of 23 patrolmen were approached and six refused to take the test whereas a total of 37 mail carriers were approached and 22 refused to take the test (X3 = 5.08, df = 1, p < 0.02). It was noted that the patrolmen were more friendly and less defensive than the mail carriers. The latter were tested prior to impending changes in the postal system, a factor which could have affected their attitudes toward testing. However, when the patrolmen were compared with 23 male students' enrolled in introductory psychology, they did not differ significantly on any of the six fear of death measures (the largest X' = 0.5, df = 1). Thus, it appears that patrolmen do not differ significantly from control groups in their fear of death. Their cooperation in taking the test perhaps suggests less defensiveness about death and suggests that by being patrolmen they may have worked through their death anxiery in part and, at a conscious verbal level, resemble other adult males.