death anxiety Flashcards
What is death anxiety?
Over the life span, we encounter death: the dying experiences of loved ones, the death of loved ones, our own dying experiences, our own deaths
According to Bjorklund death may be interpreted as:
1)An organizer of time
2)reward/punishment
3)a transition
4)gain/loss
Nyatanga and de Vocht provide a more nuanced definition of death anxiety:
An unpleasant emotion of multidimensional concerns that is of an existential origin provoked on contemplation of death for self or others
Death anxiety are typically assessed using self-report (explicit) measures:Compromised of 7 underlying factors
Fear of uncertainty and missing out
Fear of the pain associated with death
Concern over the disposition of ones’ body
Fear of helplessness and loss of control
Afterlife concerns
~~~Where do we go?
Fear of decomposition
Concerns over instructions on “how things should be done after death”
~~~Instructions we leave for others such as our belongings and our body
terror management theory,
awareness of the inevitability of death significantly impacts judgment and behavior:
Specifically to alleviate death anxiety, we strive to maintain commitment to our cultural worldview and self esteem to feel that we are not just animals destined to annihilation
When we feel we have fulfilled cultural expectations, we are worthy, and increase in self esteem that defies notion of death
Increased awareness of death results in more
favorable reactions to people and ideas that are consistent with our worldviews;increased ingroup bias;increased stereotyping of and prejudice/aggression toward outgroup members; and increased nationalism
Moreover threats to our cultural worldview and self esteem result in increased accessibility of death related thoughts
Are there age-related differences in death anxiety?
Russac et al (2007)
By age 60, death anxiety for both men and women appear to stabilize at a uniformly low level
Females show peak death anxiety in young adulthood and second peak at age 50 that is not seen in males
Explanations of female bimodal peak
Menopause around age 50
Anxiety of being able to present for their grandkids
Bluntschli et al
Examined brain activity among younger and older adults exposed to death related stimuli
~~Older adults shower more brain activity in negative words than death words
Suggesting that at a biological level, younger people show more anxiety at death related stimuli than older people
Grief work involves
movement through negative stages before resolution
Kubler ross
denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance
Bowlby
numbness, yearning, disorganization, despair, reorganization
Dual process model of coping with bereavement
loss orientated vs restoration orientated
Bonanno et al (2002)
Conducted a longitudinal study of older married couples in which a subset of participants experienced spousal death; contrasted adjustment before death and 6 and 18 months after death
Categorized on pattern of responding to the loss of a loved one
Resilient: 46%
Resilient categorized majority of older adults, did not show depression before loss or after loss
Wink and dillon
Examined age related changes in religiosity/spirituality over a 35-year period
Distinguished trajectory for females and males
religiosity/spirituality has an increase for both men and women
Suggest search for meaning increases as we get older and leads people to turn to religious or spiritual means
For women there is a particular increase after early middle age, whereas males saw this increase later in later middle age
~~~Females saw a higher increase than males
In his theory of psychosocial development erikson stated that ego integrity vs despair has a successful resolution when older adults feel a sense of emotional integration with the choices they have made and life experiences
develop a positive balance of ego integrity
Those who successfully resolve the crisis at this stage develop a ego strength of wisdom (a detached but active concern with life in the face of death)
There are some common themes that wisdom involves:
pragmatic reasoning
reflective orientation
socioemotional awareness
1) pragmatic reasoning
Lay emphasis on the knowing to live in an ethical perspective
Knowledge useful for dealing with life problems
2)reflective orientation
Reflects characteristics concerning thinking before acting, thinking logically and in many ways, recognition of change, emotion control, and application of knowledge and past experience
3)socioemotional awareness
Reflects characteristics concerning care for others feelings, one’s emotions, and other’s perspectives as well as humility
These characteristics describe traits concerned with social coordination and care for other
Research has demonstrated that wisdom is associated with well being
: increase life satisfaction, decreased negative affect, better social relationships, decreased depressive rumination, more positive vs. negative words used in speech, and increase longevity
The Berlin Wisdom Paradigm(Baltes and smith): contains 5 components that comprise wisdom
factual knowledge
strategic knowledge
knowledge about contexts of life and how these change over time
knowledge which considers the relativism of values and life goals
knowledge about the fundamental uncertainties of life and ways to manage
Baltes and smith
Examined the relationship between the meta criteria of the berlin wisdom paradigm and age
Measured meta criteria using hypothetical vignettes
Criticisms of the baltes and smith study
unrepresentative samples, hypothetical vignettes
Vignettes were very uncontextualized (not a lot of context given)
Grossman et al:
Examined the relationship between wisdom and age
Addressed criticisms of the berlin wisdom paradigm: used random sampling, measured wisdom using naturalistic, context-rich stories on intergroup and interpersonal conflict
key findings of grossman et al: discovered 6 wisdom dimensions
1)perspective shifting from one own point of view to point of view of people involved in the conflict
2)recognition of the likelihood of change
3)prediction flexibility as indicated by multiple possible prediction of how the conflict might unfold
4)recognition of uncertainty and limits of knowledge
5)search for conflict resolution
6)search for a compromise
What is gerotranscendence?
A shift from objects and material goods to a more transcendence one, alignment with cosmic sphere
It is the engagement with religion and spirituality as approaching impending death
3 components of gerotranscendence
cosmic
self
social and personal relationships
cosmic
Altered perceptions of time and space, increased connections to earlier and later generations; decreased fear of death; increased acceptance of the “mystery dimension” of life;
self
Increased discovery of “hidden aspects” of self; decreased self-centeredness;decreases concern with the body;
Social and personal relationships
Altered meaning and importance of relations, accompanied by increased need for solitude; increased transcendence of role; decreased materialism; decreased distinction between “right” and “wrong”
Cosmic transcendence as a function of age
Transcendence index states that transcendence increased with age
Higher transcendence in females during old age than males
