Showing papers in "Omega-journal of Death and Dying in 1981"
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TL;DR: In this paper, coping capacities as desired outcomes and evaluated the effects of one death education seminar on a group of 24 participants (n = 24) who experienced the entire semaine.
Abstract: The present investigation utilized coping capacities as desired outcomes and sought to evaluate the effects of one death education seminar. An experimental group (N = 24) experienced the entire sem...
79 citations
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TL;DR: The Grief Experience Inventory and MMPI were administered at both interviews, responses being subsequently divided into two age categories, sixty-five years and older and sixty-three years and younger.
Abstract: Forty-five bereaved spouses were interviewed shortly after the death and again eighteen months later. The Grief Experience Inventory and MMPI were administered at both interviews, responses being subsequently divided into two age categories, sixty-five years and older and sixty-three years and younger. Matched controls were utilized. Younger spouses initially manifested greater grief intensities but at eighteen months a reverse trend was noted; older spouses showed exacerbated grief reactions. While denial seemed to operate as a defense against their anxiety, nevertheless elevations on the Social Isolation, Depersonalization, Death Anxiety, and Loss of Vigor scales of the GEI for older spouses point to the debilitating effects of loneliness and fear for one's personal safety. Maslow's needs hierarchy was used to explain the two levels of motivation seen among younger and older spouses.
75 citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, a factor analysis of a representative population of fifteen death scales completed by 350 college students uncovered five orthogonal death-attitude factors: Negative Evaluation of death, Reluctance to Interact with the Dying, Negative Reaction to Pain, Reaction to Reminders of Death, and Preoccupation with Thoughts of Dying.
Abstract: A factor analysis of a representative population of fifteen death scales completed by 350 college students uncovered five orthogonal death-attitude factors. These factors were named Negative Evaluation of Death, Reluctance to Interact with the Dying, Negative Reaction to Pain, Reaction to Reminders of Death, and Preoccupation with Thoughts of Dying. These results support thanatological theory that death attitudes are multidimensional, that is, multiple death attitudes do co-exist and co-vary within individuals. The major implication of these findings concerns the need to differentiate and measure these separate death attitudes effectively.
72 citations
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TL;DR: This study focused on the attitudes of a national sample of adults related to the voluntary termination of life and found that those persons with favorable attitudes toward suicide were also favorable toward euthanasia.
Abstract: This study focused on the attitudes of a national sample of adults related to the voluntary termination of life. The data-base for this research were 1525 adults surveyed in the 1977 NORC General Survey. Two items in the survey delineated the pro-euthanasia and the anti-euthanasia groups. Several independent variables including structural, behavioral, and attitudinal variables were correlated with euthanasia attitudes. Several statistically significant correlations were found. These findings plus the results of a discriminant analysis showed that those persons with favorable attitudes toward suicide were also favorable toward euthanasia. Religiosity and other religious indicators were negatively associated with pro-euthanasia attitudes. Whites and males were more favorable toward euthanasia than Blacks and females. Finally, the social class variables were positively associated with pro-euthanasia attitudes.
57 citations
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TL;DR: This paper found that the more supportive students were about the right of people in general to commit suicide and the more situations they felt would justify their own suicide, the more anxious they felt about death, the less strongly they were committed to a religion, and more seriously they had thought about committing suicide.
Abstract: College students from four different institutions were asked to report their attitudes toward suicide, their anxiety about death, the degree of their religiosity, the substance of their religious beliefs, and the seriousness with which they had considered suicide. The more supportive students were about the right of people in general to commit suicide and the more situations they felt would justify their own suicide, the more anxious they felt about death, the less strongly they were committed to a religion, and the more seriously they had thought about committing suicide. A discussion about the ramifications of these results for the college campus is included.
55 citations
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TL;DR: Structured interviews with widowed community residents over sixty-two provide further evidence that the stresses of widowhood persist for years after the spouse's death; they do not confirm the existence of separate stages of adaptation.
Abstract: Developmental theory and clinical experience suggest that stages of adjustment to widowhood beyond the initial stages of grief may exist. Structured interviews with 193 widowed community residents over sixty-two were conducted as part of a needs assessment survey of the elderly in Wichita. One hundred fifty-one variables including eight psycho-social needs, the Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale scale, age perception, future orientation, presence of or desire for a confidant, contact with children, and participation in work, volunteer, religious and organizational roles were assessed, as well as transportation, nutrition, health care, household and educational needs. The median was used to differentiate short-term from long-term widowhood. The two groups differed significantly on fewer than 5 per cent of the variables. This was true of both widows and widowers. Six categories of widowhood were then defined ranging from less than three years to over twenty years. Only about 6 per cent of the variables we...
46 citations
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TL;DR: In this article, an examination of the death concerns of suicide intervention workers was undertaken, and it was found that crisis workers have consistently higher apprehension about their own mortality, but do not differ from controls in their degree of concern about the deaths of others.
Abstract: In light of the apparently important contribution of a counselor's personal characteristics to his/her clinical effectiveness, an examination of the death concerns of suicide intervention workers was undertaken. Results suggest that, relative to controls, crisis workers have consistently higher apprehension about their own mortality, but do not differ from controls in their degree of concern about the deaths of others. The significance of these findings for the selection and training of suicide counselors is noted, and the nature of current measures of death concern is briefly discussed.
43 citations
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TL;DR: The investigators reasoned, after Sartre, that death would be more threatening to individuals whose projected identities were radically incomplete, since it would finalize the meaning of their live... as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The investigators reasoned, after Sartre, that death would be more threatening to individuals whose projected identities were radically incomplete, since it would finalize the meaning of their live...
43 citations
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TL;DR: Physicians with formal coursework tended to relate somewhat differently to the dying patient than did physicians who did not take such a course as four of the eleven Likert-type statements on relating to dying patients revealed a statistically significant relationship.
Abstract: The literature suggests that physicians have difficulty relating to dying patients. Medical schools traditionally have not addressed themselves to this issue. The object of this research was to det...
33 citations
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TL;DR: In this article, the interrelationships among exposure to death and dying, fear of death, and anxiety were examined and several tentative explanations were suggested for the obtained relationships, including state and trait anxiety.
Abstract: The present research was an attempt to examine the interrelationships among exposure to death and dying, fear of death, and anxiety. Questionnaire data were collected from 375 undergraduates at a midwestern university. Overall measures of exposure to death and dying were significantly correlated with several fears of death and were found unrelated to both state and trait anxiety. Both measures of anxiety were found to be positively related to several types of fear of death which held when controlling for the potential effects of exposure to death and dying. Measures of emotional closeness to the deceased, the relationship to the deceased, and the time elapsed since exposure to death were also examined and found related to various types of fear of death and anxiety. Several tentative explanations were suggested for the obtained relationships.
25 citations
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TL;DR: In this article, 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, reporting significant predicted correlations of the threat index with the death concern scale, Trait Anxiety Scale, and Repression-Sensitization Scale.
Abstract: 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...
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TL;DR: The results of the available studies of suicide among the various Indian tribal groups are presented here along with some implications for further research.
Abstract: Suicide among Native Americans has received much attention in the recent literature. These reports have primarily focused upon single, specific tribal groups. While the suicide rate for Indians as ...
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors described several cases in which "presences" or "energies" were experienced as part of relinquishing attachments to lost persons, and some preliminary suggestions are made regarding therapeutic approaches to such experiences in the clinical situation.
Abstract: Several cases are described in which ‘presences’ or ‘energies’ were experienced as part of relinquishing attachments to lost persons. In each case, the experience occurred at the time of letting go, and all appeared to be critical and beneficial in the resolution of the mourning process. The evidence does not support any ready ‘scientific’ account; and it is emphasized that such experiences should be recognized and not discounted for lack of a clear theoretical explanation. Finally, some preliminary suggestions are made regarding therapeutic approaches to such experiences in the clinical situation.
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TL;DR: It is concluded that the uneasiness nurses report in work situations involving dying and death in the hospital is more than a simple reflection of the nurse's own fears.
Abstract: This paper examines the impact of death-related fears on the responses of RNs and LPNs employed in a general hospital to descriptions of work situations involving dying and death. Results were base...
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TL;DR: A theoretical position on death anxiety advanced by previous authors was tested in this study as mentioned in this paper, and it was concluded that we try to extend objects that are valued highly, while those of low...
Abstract: A theoretical position on death anxiety advanced by previous authors was tested in this study. Diggory and Rothman reasoned that we try to extend objects that are valued highly, while those of low ...
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TL;DR: In this article, a sample of American sympathy cards is analyzed, and symbols, colors, and message wording and form are reviewed, and responses of college students to sympathy cards are evaluated.
Abstract: A sample of American sympathy cards is content analyzed, and symbols, colors, and message wording and form are reviewed. In addition, responses of college students to sympathy cards are evaluated. ...
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TL;DR: The previously reported finding of no difference in the death fears of heart and cancer patients was replicated although its generalization to other life-threatened patient groups was contraindicated.
Abstract: Two experimenter-interviewers and 211 volunteer interviewees participated. Two multivariate data “packages”–obtained via standardized individual interviews–were examined: 1. Templer Death Anxiety Scale (DAS) total scores and attitudes toward voluntary passive euthanasia; 2. five DAS-derived principal components previously identified as independent sources of death anxiety. A significant sex-difference (females showing greater death anxiety than males) was consistent with previous research. Consistent with Kubler-Ross' earlier speculation, both greater death acceptance and anxiety were observed among rural as compared to urban-dwelling participants. Responses by a life-threatened geriatric subsample (n = 60) revealed significant differences in death fears related to type of medical disorder. This was consistent with an idiographic “orientations toward death” theoretical perspective. The previously reported finding of no difference in the death fears of heart and cancer patients was replicated although its ...
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TL;DR: In this paper, a death awareness workshop is described which is experimental in nature and based on Kubler-Ross' theory and exercises have been developed which parallel the five stages of acceptance of dying for terminally ill patients.
Abstract: A death awareness workshop is described which is experimental in nature and based on Kubler-Ross' theory [1]. Exercises have been developed which parallel the five stages of acceptance of dying for terminally ill patients. An encounter group format is utilized in order to facilitate group process. An approach which effectively integrated both the existential framework for this workshop and the behavioral techniques utilized is discussed. The research design testing the effectiveness of the workshop is presented. The effects of the workshop reveal cognitive and emotional changes indicating participants in the workshop to be moving towards an “acceptance of death.”
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors described and illustrated with verbatim excerpts from an exercise conducted with eighty participants in a workshop on helping the bereaved, which was described as an approach for effective classroom teaching and learning about grief and mourning.
Abstract: Effective classroom teaching, and learning about grief and mourning must involve both didactic instruction and the group dynamics of personal involvement. An appreciation of the individuality of the grieving experience must be incorporated into the broader understanding of grief in its generic aspects. In this paper such an approach is described and illustrated with verbatim excerpts from an exercise conducted with eighty participants in a workshop on helping the bereaved.
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TL;DR: This paper examined the hypothesis that there is a relationship between outlook on death and orientation toward mercy killing, abortion, suicide, and euthanasia, and found that there was a strong correlation between attitudes towards mercy killing and attitudes toward suicide.
Abstract: The present study examined the hypothesis that there is a relationship between outlook on death and orientation toward mercy killing, abortion, suicide, and euthanasia. Multiple assessments of deat...
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TL;DR: In this paper, a sample of attempted suicides using cutting was compared with a sample using coma-producing drugs, in order to explore the correlates of choice of method for suicide, and the cutters were compared with the drugs.
Abstract: In order to explore correlates of choice of method for suicide, a sample of attempted suicides using cutting was compared with a sample of attempted suicides using coma-producing drugs. The cutters...
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TL;DR: In this paper, the empirical relationship between fatalism and suicide in a population of young victims was explored and content analysis of case histories and suicide notes was conducted for 132 individua...
Abstract: This paper explores the empirical relationship between fatalism and suicide in a population of youthful victims. Content analysis of case histories and suicide notes was conducted for 132 individua...
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TL;DR: In this article, a study was designed to test the hypothesized relationship between self-actualization or authenticity and the ability to confront personal mortality, and two groups of ten persons each were matched on...
Abstract: A study was designed to test the hypothesized relationship between self-actualization or authenticity and the ability to confront personal mortality. Two groups of ten persons each were matched on ...
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TL;DR: Kastenbaum raised and examined the hypothesis that fear of death and fertility are directly related phenomena, concluding that procreation was one among several desirable forms of self-continuation.
Abstract: Kastenbaum raised and examined the hypothesis that fear of death and fertility are directly related phenomena, concluding that procreation was one among several desirable forms of self-continuation. Re-examination of this hypothesis, using Templer's Manifest Death Anxiety Scale and a community sample (N=234) of reproductive and post-reproductive aged males and females, revealed that the hypothesis was confirmed among high school or less educated respondents. Within this subsample, confirmation was found among all females concerning their experienced, desired, and expected fertility. However, their male counterparts exhibited confirmation only with respect to desired and expected fertility, and only if they were within the reproductive age range.
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TL;DR: This paper discusses an alternative vehicle, that of assigning medical students to “on call” clergy, which helps the on-call clergy cope with crises that arise in the hospital and counsel dying patients and their families.
Abstract: Death education for medical students is a newly developing aspect of the medical curriculum. Medical death educators must make an attempt to provide medical students with clinical exposure to dying patients and their families. A one-to-one relationship is one vehicle for such exposure. This paper discusses an alternative vehicle, that of assigning medical students to “on call” clergy. The on-call clergy help cope with crises that arise in the hospital and counsel dying patients and their families. The students gain clinical experience through the tutelage of the clergy. The reactions of the students are discussed and the mechanics of the on-call program are presented.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the denial of death may be an effect rather than a cause of inequality and competitiveness in modern culture, and the recognition of this vulnerability actually could challenge their assumptions by provoking a deep a...
Abstract: Those who believe that more honest attitudes toward death will provoke more humane social and political attitudes need to confront directly the argument that the denial of death is both necessary and inevitable. Ernest Becker and Jacques Choron have made the most forceful recent cases that death deprives life of meaning and leads to massive denial in modern secular culture. However, while Becker vividly portrays the pervasiveness and desperation of death-denying behavior, he does not perceive that the denial of death may be an effect rather than a cause of inequality and competitiveness in modern culture. Choron's stress on the need for endurance in finding meaning in life amounts to a similar underestimation of the power of human relationships to provide life with significance in the face of death. Rather than establishing the necessity of denying death, Becker and Choron accentuate human vulnerability. The recognition of this vulnerability actually could challenge their assumptions by provoking a deep a...
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TL;DR: In this paper, an analysis of patterns of criminal homicide and suicide in England and Wales and the United States during recent decades is presented, focusing on the sex of homicidal offenders and victims and of suicide victims.
Abstract: This is an analysis of patterns of criminal homicide and suicide in England and Wales and the United States during recent decades. Special attention is given to the sex of homicidal offenders and victims and of suicide victims. Also stressed are age of offenders and victims, the familial and other role relationships of homicidal offenders and victims to each other, and the nature of homicide followed by the offender's suicide in the two countries. In England and Wales, the low violence country, females if they kill at all are much more prone to commit suicide than homicide, as compared to females in the United States, the high violence country. In England and Wales, female victimization rates for both forms of death much more nearly approach those of males than is the case in the United States. Homicidal offenders are more likely to victimize members of their own families in England and Wales than in the United States. This is particularly true of English-Welsh females and especially in regard to killing ...
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TL;DR: The animal research of the sudden death phenomenon purporting to demonstrate causal psychological states has serious methodologic problems as discussed by the authors, and neither models nor the definition of the term, "sudden death,” are uniformly adopted; thus, the literature contains many conflicting reports.
Abstract: Animal research of the “sudden death” phenomenon purporting to demonstrate causal psychological states has serious methodologic problems. Neither models nor the definition of the term, “sudden death,” are uniformly adopted; thus, the literature contains many conflicting reports. Further, much of the work has dealt with assumed psychological causation which is nontestable in nonverbal animals and tends to obscure study of quantifiable behavioral and physiological mechanisms.
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TL;DR: The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of a videotape of childrens' reactions to death on viewer's subsequent verbalizations about death in the course of family therapy.
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of a videotape of childrens' reactions to death on viewer's subsequent verbalizations about death in the course of family therapy. Two groups of thirty children in family therapy who had lost a member of their family participated as viewers and non-viewers of the videotape. The two groups were compared on the change in frequency with which they spoke about death during recorded family therapy sessions before and after the viewer group was shown the videotape. Significant gains in frequency were found for the viewer group and none were found for the non-viewer group.
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TL;DR: In this paper, a brief review of the descriptive literature on crisis theory is presented, which suggests that its stress on the rapid establishment of cognitive re-structuring of a client's perceptions is inappropriate for work with many types of suicidal clients.
Abstract: After a brief review of the descriptive literature on crisis theory, the author suggests that its stress on the rapid establishment of “cognitive re-structuring” of a client's perceptions is inappropriate for work with many types of suicidal clients A discussion of the pathological nature of suicide follows which indicates the generally poor or defensive ego-functioning level of suicidal clients at the moment of initial crisis contact Bracketing and stabilization are suggested as alternative means by which to rapidly effect an increased client ability to get a grasp on own orientations and perspectives of need and time Stress on client's ability to control is also seen as an important initial counseling step People upon whom this theory is based are adolescents yet it could apply to adults as well