Relationships among Defense Style, Existential Anxiety, and Religiosity

Abstract

63 participants whose mean age was 26.8 yr. answered a questionnaire which measured defense style, existential anxiety, and religiosity. Defense style was generalized to existential concerns; repressors, who tend to avoid threatening stimuli, were likely to have less existential anxiety than sensitizers, who tend to approach threatening stimuli. Religiosity was related to neither defense style nor existential anxiety. It was suggested that religiosity was more influenced by socialization than by individual anxieties or personality variables such as defense style.