At Deaths Door: Religiosity and Priming Effects on Death Anxiety

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Stay Away from the Light A Study of Death Anxiety
Sarah Goff Travis Langley, Mentor Henderson State
University
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Introduction

• The majority of studies have simply compared
  religiosity and death anxiety by having the
  participants fill out different scales that
  pertain to the topics.
• The current study allowed the participants to
  confront death by priming them with readings and
  pictures portraying death scenarios.

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Factors

• Belief in an afterlife
• Religion
• Age
• Ethnicity
• Exposure to traumatic deaths

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Tsunami

• UNICEF Tsunami Relief Study
• (TNS Global)
• Children
• Loss
• Future
• Fear

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Death and Disasters

• 9/11
• Hurricane Katrina
• Virginia Tech

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Purpose

• The purpose of the different priming scenarios is
  to determine if religion only helps to cope with
  ideal deaths.

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Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic Religiosity

• Allport and Ross (1967) defined Intrinsic
  Religiosity as Religion as an end in itself and
  Extrinsic Religiosity as Religion as a means to
  an end.
• Allport and Ross (1967) stated, The
  extrinsically motivated person uses his religion,
  whereas the intrinsically motivated person lives
  his religion.

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Death

• Death is one of the very few aspects in life that
  people do not have any control over.
• Death anxiety has been explained as the
  thoughts, fears, and emotions about that final
  event of living that we experience under more
  normal conditions of life (Belsky, 1999).

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Hypotheses

• 1. Individuals who are more intrinsically
  religious will experience lower levels of death
  anxiety than those who are more extrinsically
  religious.
• 2. Individuals who receive the violent death
  priming will experience higher levels of death
  anxiety.
• 3. Women will experience higher levels of death
  anxiety than men.

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Participants

• Study 1
• 34 men and women
• Median age of 21
• All spoke fluent English
• Undergraduate students from Henderson State
  University
• All participants were treated fairly using the
  APA Ethical Guidelines
• All received candy or course credit for
  compensation
• Study 2
• 63 men and women
• Median age of 22.5
• All spoke fluent English
• Undergraduate students along with others
• All participants were treated fairly using APA
  Ethical Guidelines
• All received candy for compensation

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Design

• Study 1
• 2 (Church Involvement) X 2 (Priming Paragraphs X
  S) design
• Study 2
• 2 (Religiosity) X 3 (priming paragraphs X S)
  design

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Variables

• Study 1
• Manipulated Independent Variable- Type of priming
• Selected Independent Variable- Church attendance
• Dependent Variable- Death Anxiety Levels
• Study 2
• Manipulated Independent Variable- Type of priming
• Selected Independent Variables- Religiosity and
  Gender
• Dependent Variable- Death Anxiety Levels

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Procedure

• Study 1
• Read and signed consent form
• Screening Questionnaire
• - Demographics
• - Church Attendance (Scale of 1- 7)
• Received 1 of 2 types of Priming
• - Violent Death
• - Peaceful Death
• Filled out Templers Death Anxiety Scale
• Debriefed

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Procedure

• Study 2
• Read and signed consent form
• Screening Questionnaire
• - Demographics
• - Religiosity
• Received 1 of 3 types of Priming
• - Violent Death
• - Peaceful Death
• - No Death
• Filled out Templers Death Anxiety Scale
• Debriefed

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Similar Studies

• Feifer Branscomb (1973).
• Nelson, Cantrell (1980).
• Ryburn Festa (2006).

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Materials

• Hoge, D. R. (1972) Intrinsic Religious Motivation
  Scale
• - 10 items it a likert-like format
• Reliability- .90, Validity- .59
• King, M. Hunt, R. (1972). Items for ten
  religious scales. Extrinsic Religiosity Scale
• 7 Extrinsic Religiosity Questions
• Reliability- .73, Validity- .52, .49, .46, .39,
  .39
• Templer D. I. (1970) Death Anxiety Scale
• - 15 item true/false scale
• - Reliability- test-retest of .93, Validity- In
  correlation with Boyars Fear of Death Scale .74
• Priming Paragraphs and Visuals
• Violent
• Peaceful
• Neutral

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Screening Questionnaire

• In my life I experience the presence of the
  divine.
• a. strongly disagree b. moderately disagree
• c. moderately agree d. strongly agree
• My faith sometimes restricts my actions.
• a. strongly disagree b. moderately disagree
• c. moderately agree d. strongly agree
• Nothing is as important to me as serving God as
  best I know how.
• a. strongly disagree b. moderately disagree
• c. moderately agree d. strongly agree
• I try hard to carry my religion over into all my
  other dealings in life.
• a. strongly disagree b. moderately disagree
• c. moderately agree d. strongly agree
• My religious beliefs are what really lie behind
  my whole approach to life.
• a. strongly disagree b. moderately disagree
• c. moderately agree d. strongly agree
• It doesnt matter so much what I believe as long
  as I lead a moral life.
• a. strongly disagree b. moderately disagree
• c. moderately agree d. strongly agree
• Although I am a religious person, I refuse to let
  religious considerations influence my every day
  affairs.

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Form 1

• At that moment an oncoming car hit Jennys
  vehicle head on. The sound of breaking glass and
  bending metal rang through Jennys head. Pain
  shot through Jennys limbs as her body was
  crashed beneath the metal frame. Jenny, only
  slightly conscious, tried to move and scream. The
  scream caught in her throat as the pain overtook
  her.

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Form 2

• Only a few weeks later Marys body gave out.
  As Mary experienced her final minutes of life she
  could not have asked for more. As she drew in her
  last breath she looked around saw the people she
  loved by her side. Mary began to fade and a few
  seconds later was gone.

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Form 3

• Joys thoughts were interrupted by her mother
  yelling for her from downstairs. Dinner was ready
  and dance practice started at 600. Joy ran down
  stairs to join her mom and dad for dinner. They
  sat and talked about the days events together
  and what was to come of the next.

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DAS

• Concern about intellectual and personal emotional
  reactions to death.
• Concern about physical change.
• Awareness of and concern about the passage of
  time.
• Concern about the pain and stress that can
  accompany illness and dying.

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DAS

• Answer the following questions true or false.
  Mark a T in front of the sentences you believe to
  be more frequently true of you and an F in front
  of the sentences you believe to be more
  frequently false of you. Do not leave any blank.
• ____ I am very much afraid to die.
• ____ It doesnt make me nervous when people
  talk about death.
• ____ I often think about how short life
  really is.
• ____ The sight of a dead body is horrifying
  to me.
• ____ The subject of life after death
  troubles me greatly.
• ____ I fear dying a painful death.
• ____ The thought of death seldom enters my
  mind.
• ____ I feel that the future holds nothing
  for me to fear.
• ____ The thought of death never bothers me.
• ____ I dread to think about having to have
  an operation.
• ____ I am not particularly afraid of getting
  cancer.
• ____ I am often distressed by the way time
  flies so very rapidly.
• ____ I shudder when I hear people talking
  about World War III.
• ____ I am really scared of having a heart
  attack.
• ____ I am not at all afraid to die.

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Violent Priming

• High church attendance and violent death priming
  produced lower anxiety scores (M 4.75, SE
  2.71) than those who received the peaceful
  death.

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Peaceful Priming
SE

• A significant interaction was noted between
  individuals who reported high church attendance
  and peaceful death priming. Those individuals
  reported higher levels of anxiety (M 2.8, SE
  1.6193).

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Interaction
Violent
Peaceful

• Low church involvement and the peaceful death
  prime reported the lowest magnitude of anxiety (M
  5.62, SE 2.26).
• Violent priming and low church involvement (M
  4.37, SE 1.92) produced similar results to
  violent priming and frequent attendance (M
  4.75, SE 2.71).

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Women
Violent
Neutral

• Overall women (M 8.75, SE 2.49), (M 7.70,
  SE 1.77), (M 7.38, SE 3.40) reported higher
  anxiety levels than men (M 7.50, SE 2.64), (M
  8.10, SE 2.77), (M 3.75, SE .957)
• No significant effect was noted between the
  priming paragraphs.

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Men
Violent
Neutral

• Men experienced significantly less anxiety when
  presented with the neutral prime (M 3.75, SE
  .96)

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Interaction
Violent
Neutral

• The interaction between gender and priming was
  approaching significance with F(2, 63) 2.24
  plt.116.
• The violent death group showed the most anxiety
  (M 8.27, SE out of 15)
• The peaceful death group showed less (M 7.90,
  SE 2.27), and the neutral group showed the
  least (M 6.53, SE 3.37).

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Discussion

• Study 1
• The peaceful prime could have presented itself as
  the more realistic prime causing the higher
  anxiety levels.
• Study 2
• Overall women experienced higher levels of
  anxiety than the men.
• The paragraphs depicted a woman dying, which
  could have elicited higher anxiety scores for the
  women participants.
• However, women reported significantly higher
  anxiety levels when primed with the neutral
  paragraph.
• These results conclude that women in general
  experience greater death anxiety than men.

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Contributions to Society

• It would be very beneficial to everyone if there
  were more classes and therapies available to help
  people cope with death. Death is an inevitable
  part of life and everyone at some point will
  experience death first hand. Religion may help
  some people cope with the concept of death but,
  what about the individuals who are not religious?
  
• People need to acknowledge that everyone will
  experience some form of anxiety when dealing with
  death and this experiment will help to confirm
  that death anxiety is an issue that needs to be
  addressed.

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References

• Allport, G. W., Ross, J. M. (1967). Personal
  religious orientation and prejudice. Journal of
  Personality and Social Psychology, 5. 432-443.
  Retrieved September 13, 2006, From
  http//EBSCOHost.PSYHinfo.com.
• American Psychological Association. (2001).
  Publication Manual of the American Psychological
  Washington DC Author.
• Festa, D. Ryburn J. (2006). College students
  responses to traumatic events involving sudden
  death. Illness, Crisis Loss, 14, 143-158.
• Hoge, D. R. (1972). A validated intrinsic
  religious motivation scale. In Hill, P.C.,
  Hood, R.W., Jr. (Eds.), Measures of Religiosity
  (pp. 137-141). Birmingham, AL Religious
  Education Press.
• King, M. Hunt, R. (1972). Items for ten
  religious scales. Extrinsic Religiosity Scale.
  In Hill, P.C., Hood, R.W., Jr. (Eds.),
  Measures of Religiosity (pp. 137-141).
  Birmingham, AL Religious Education Press.
• Kraft, William A., Litwin, WalterJ., Barber,
  Scott E. (2001). Religious Orientaion and
  Assertiveness Relationship to death anxiety.
  The Journal of Social Psychology, 127, 93-95.
  Retrieved September 9, 2006, from http//
  EBSCOHost.PSYCHinfo.com