Templer's Death Anxiety Scale: A Critique

Abstract

Templer’s Death Anxiety Scale (DAS) has great heterogeneity in its item content. The present study examined the reliability of the DAS and what it may measure in relation to death anxiety. A convenience sample of 106 Iranian nurses from two hospitals in Tehran, Iran was recruited. They completed the Death Anxiety Scale (DAS) and the Collett-Lester Fear of Death Scale (CLFDS). The DAS total score, factor scores and item scores were not strongly correlated with the subscale scores of the CLFDS which distinguish between the fear of death and the fear of dying and between these fears for oneself versus death and dying of others. Therefore, it is unclear what aspects of death anxiety the DAS is measuring. It was concluded that the DAS should be discarded as a measure of death anxiety. Keywords: Death anxiety, Templer’s Death Anxiety Scale, Validity