Date of Award

Spring 8-1-1990

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

June Sprock

Second Advisor

Carol Yoder

Third Advisor

Michael J. Murphy

Abstract

In previous studies, death preparation has often been narrowly defined as involving formal and informal educational opportunities (e.g., Bailey, 1976; Miles, 1980; Watts, 1977). In the present study this construct was defined as the quantity (aggregate) and quality (resolution) of experiences, cognitions, and affective processes in response to anticipatory, perceived, analog, and actual loss. A 132 item questionnaire was developed to assess experiential, cognitive, and affective preparation. Quantitative measures of exposure to death-related events as well as the qualitative measure of subjective adjustment to potential loss were evaluated. Reliability and validity for the construct were established and its relationship with death acceptance and death anxiety was investigated on a population of 130 college students in Indiana. Subjects exhibiting higher resoluted death preparation had low death anxiety and high death acceptance, and those with low resoluted death preparation had high death anxiety and low death acceptance, E (1,122) = 4.87, R <.03. Unexpectedly, the quantity of death preparation or exposure to death-related events was unrelated to death anxiety and death acceptance.

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