One of the most substantial legacies of Herman Feifel was his pioneering research on attitudes toward death and dying in a variety of populations. The authors review the large and multifaceted literature on death anxiety, fear, threat and acceptance, focusing on the attitudes toward death and dying of relevant professional and patient groups, and the relationship of death concern to aging, physical and mental health, religiosity, and terror management strategies. We conclude with several recommendations for improving the conceptual and practical yield of future work in this area.

Psychological Research on Death Attitudes: An Overview and Evaluation.

The Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler

Published outcome research on the impact of death education was reviewed using metaanalytic procedures. Programs have been more successful in changing participants' attitudes on death-related issues (mean effect = 0.67) than their personal feelings about death (mean = 0.18). In terms of affective outcomes, experiential programs that focus on personal feelings about death were significantly more effective than didactic programs not containing such an emphasis. Moreover, half of the latter programs produced negative effects on affective outcomes. Results illustrate the importance of considering types of outcomes and types of programs when assessing the impact of death education. Several recommendations are offered to improve future research.

The impact of death education

Alfred Adler was one of the first theorists to use birth-order position in his conceptualization of clients. Birth order continues to inform professionals practicing from an Individual Psychology framework; however, the wealth of research on the topic can seem overwhelming. Using a modified version of Light and Smith's (1971) vote-counting methodology, the authors reviewed 200 published articles with statistically significant findings of birth order characteristics. From these studies, lifestyle characteristics associated with birth order were tabulated to provide a clear picture of results. Examples of typical characteristics associated with persons of specific birthorder positions include high success and achievement for first-born children, high need for achievement for only children, high sociability for middle children, and high social interest for youngest children. Implications for counselors conclude the article.

A review of 200 birth-order studies: Lifestyle characteristics.

Personal construct psychology and existential philosophy suggest that a positive resolution of the issue of personal mortality enables a person to live a more intense, meaningful life. The present study tested this hypothesis by inviting participation in selected death education experiences designed to produce more positive death orientation and higher levels of psychological functioning. Participants in the study were 96 undergraduate psychology students, who participated in a randomly assigned experience: completing a personal obituary, writing a farewell letter, or, for the control group, participating in a stress management experience. Prior to this experience, the participants completed the Purpose in Life Test (PIL), the Collett-Lester Fear of Death Scale (FDS), a slightly modified form of the Threat Index (TI), and a Personal Data Questionnaire. All but one student returned about seven weeks later to complete the first three questionnaires again. The TI was modified for scoring two differe...

Reduction in death threat as a basis for optimal functioning

A four part investigation of death orientation in college students using the provided-construct form of the Threat Index and the Death Concern Scale was conducted. Part I investigated the construct validity of the Threat Index, reporting significant predicted correlations of the Threat Index with the Death Concern Scale, Trait Anxiety Scale, and Repression-Sensitization Scale. Part II explored death orientation and personality differences between a Thanatology Group (death education students) and a Control Group. Thanatology students reported significantly lesser death threat and significantly greater death concerns than controls. Part III compared pre-test to post-test changes in death threat and death concerns for the Thanatology Group with pre-post changes for the Control Group. Using analysis of covariance procedures, a significantly greater decline in death threat was obtained in the Thanatology Group relative to the controls. Part IV explored two personality variables–trait anxiety and repression-se...

Death Threat and Death Concerns in the College Student.

Firstborn college students showed more death threat than middle- or laterborns. The firstborns also reported less conscious concern about death than the other two groups. Larger samples are needed as well as controls for factors like family size.

Daniel Eckstein

Papers

Death Threat and Death Concerns in the College Student.

Ordinal Position and Death Concerns.