Personality correlates of attitude toward death

Examined the interrelationships of two scales of attitudes toward death with four measures of personality: the Manifest Anxiety Scale, the Novelty Experiencing Scale, the Marlow-Crowne Social Desirability Scale, and the Internal-External Orientation Scale. Ss were 142 volunteer males enrolled in introductory psychology courses. A correlation of .72 was found between the Death Concern Scale and the Death Anxiety Scale. In addition, both scales showed the same pattern of correlations with the four personality measures. The highest correlations were found between death attitude and the manifest anxiety scores and the external-internal orientation scores. The importance of including these factors when one is interpreting death attitude scores was stressed, as well as the need for research to establish that these scales measures an anxiety or concern above and beyond general anxiety.