Relationship of Death Anxiety Scale Factors to Subjective States

Abstract

The purpose of the present research was to determine the relationships between the factors of Templer's Death Anxiety Scale and a number of measures of subjective state. Previous research had demonstrated that the Death Anxiety Scale correlates more highly with subjective state measures, especially anxiety and depression, than with other variables. The present research sought to provide a more refined perspective. The most salient finding was that in a general population, Factor I was essentially unrelated to anxiety and depression in contrast to the positive correlations provided by Factors II, III, and IV. Factor I, whose items directly assess an uncomplicated fear of death and dying, was conceptualized as fear of death. The other factors, whose items pertain to obsessional thinking regarding death and its ramifications, were collectively conceptualized as death anxiety.