death anxiety test (DAS)

Death anxiety is anxiety caused by thoughts of one’s own death and is also referred to as thanatophobia (fear of death). Death anxiety differs from necrophobia, which is the fear of others who are dead or dying.

Popular psychotherapist Robert Lang’s proposed three different causes of death anxiety: predatory, predator, and existential. In addition to his research, many theorists such as Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson, and Ernest Becker have examined death anxiety and its impact on cognitive processing.

Death anxiety has been found to affect people of differing demographic groups as well, such as men versus women, young versus old, etc.

Additionally, there is anxiety caused by death-recent thought-content, which might be classified within a clinical setting by a psychiatrist as morbid and/or abnormal. This classification pre-necessitates a degree of anxiety which is persistent and interferes with everyday functioning. Lower ego integrity, more physical problems and more psychological problems are predictive of higher levels of death anxiety in elderly people perceiving themselves close to death.

Death anxiety can cause a person to become extremely timid or distressed when discussing anything to do with death.

Findings from one systematic review demonstrated that death anxiety features across several mental health conditions.

One meta-analysis of psychological interventions targeting death anxiety showed that death anxiety can be reduced using cognitive behavioral therapy.

1.    I am very much afraid to die.
2.    The thought of death seldom enters my mind.
3.    It does not make me nervous when people talk about death.
4.    I dream to think about ha‎ving to have an operation.
5.    I am not at all afraid to die.
6.    I am not particularly afraid of getting cancer.
7.    The thought of death never bothers me.
8.    I am often distressed by the way time flies so very rapidly.
9.    I fear dying a painful death.
10.The subject of life after death troubles me greatly.
11.I am really scared of ha‎ving a heart attack.
12.I often think about how short life really is.
13.I shudder when I hear people talk about a World War III.
14.The sigh of a dead body is horrifying to me.
15.I feel that the future holds nothing for me to fear.
 
 
This instrument can be found on pages 186- 189 of RESILIENCE AGAINST DEATH ANXIETY IN RELATIONSHIP TO POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER AND PSYCHIATRIC CO-MORBIDITY. Available online at: http://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk/pearl_jspui/bitstream/10026.1/306/4/Hoelterhoff%20M%20E_2010.pdf
Hoelterhoff‚ Mark 2010. RESILIENCE AGAINST DEATH ANXIETY IN RELATIONSHIP TO POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER AND PSYCHIATRIC CO-MORBIDITY. thesis submitted to the University of Plymouth in partial fulfilment for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY. University of Plymouth.

Templer‚ D. I. (1970). The construction and validation of a death anxiety scale. The Journal of General Psychology‚ 82‚ 165-177

 

Tavakoli. Mohammad Ali & Ahmadzadeh.  Behrooz. Investigation of Validity and Reliability of Templer Death Anxiety Scale. Thought & Behavior in Clinical Psychology. 2011‚ Volume 6‚ Number 21

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Mohammed Looti, PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES (2023) death anxiety test (DAS). Retrieved from https://scales.arabpsychology.com/s/death-anxiety-test-das/. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.31575.96163

Related terms:

  1. Templer Death Anxiety Scale (DAS)
  2. DEATH TABOO (DEATH TABU)
  3. Diabetes Attitude Scale (DAS-3)
  4. Delinquent Activities Scale (DAS)
  5. Differential Ability Scales (DAS)
  6. Death Anxiety Resilience (DAR)
  7. DEATH ANXIETY SCALE
  8. DEATH ANXIETY
  9. THE DEATH TRANSCENDENCE SCALE
  10. ASSISTED DEATH