Improving Measurement of Death Anxiety

Abstract

Two Likert versions of Templet's death anxiety scale were constructed. Three death-anxiety scales were administered to 320 college subjects along with the Marlowe-Crowne Scale and a self-perceived religiosity checklist. 281 subjects were retested on the death anxiety measures. A Likert version of the Templer scale increased the internal consistency of the scale and its discriminability. Females scored higher than males on the three death-anxiety measures for both testing periods. The results of the present study suggest that the Templer/McMordie scale offers advantages over Templer's original scale.