Relationship of Elderly Subjects' Death Attitudes & Existential Meaning in Life

• Main Author: Sowder, Thomas
• Format: Others
• Published: TopSCHOLAR® 1975
• Subjects: Psychology; Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/2872; https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3874&context=theses

A study of 100 subjects over the ape of 60 was reported which investigated the correlation between purpose in life as defined by existential philosophy and death anxiety. It was designed to examine the effect of group affiliation and sex on subjective self-appraisal death anxiety and purpose in life questionnaires. The results indicated that: (a) the greater perceived purpose in life, the lower the death anxiety, (b) females in the socially oriented group had a greater negative correlation between death anxiety and purpose in life, (c) there were variables associated with the occurrence of both sex and group affiliation which greatly influenced scoring on the death anxiety measure (d) females affiliated with the socially oriented organization had much larger death anxiety scores, and (e) there was little difference between subject's scores which indicated having purpose in life.