Death imagery and death anxiety.

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Thanatology

Background:

• Death anxiety is a significant area of psychological study.
• Understanding death imagery provides insight into psychological well-being related to mortality.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between positive/negative death imagery and levels of death anxiety.
• To explore demographic and academic factors influencing death imagery and anxiety.

Main Methods:

• Survey administered to 179 undergraduate students.
• Utilized five measures of death anxiety.
• Assessed positive and negative death imagery.

Main Results:

• Low death anxiety scores correlated with significantly more positive death images.
• Imagining death as young was associated with more positive death imagery.
• Significant differences in death anxiety and imagery were found between psychology and thanatology students.

Conclusions:

• Death imagery is inversely related to death anxiety.
• Academic context (psychology vs. thanatology) influences perceptions of death.
• No significant sex differences were observed in death anxiety or imagery.