Systematic Review of Existential Anxiety Instruments

Existential anxiety (EA) is an expression of being occupied with ultimate concerns such as death, meaninglessness, and fundamental loneliness. Philosophers and psychologists have claimed its importance for the study of human thinking, emotion, decision making, and psychopathology. Until now research...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of humanistic psychology 2015-04, Vol.55 (2), p.173-201
Main Authors: van Bruggen, Vincent, Vos, Joël, Westerhof, Gerben, Bohlmeijer, Ernst, Glas, Gerrit
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anxiety
Decision making
Emotions
Quantitative psychology
Systematic review
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Existential anxiety (EA) is an expression of being occupied with ultimate concerns such as death, meaninglessness, and fundamental loneliness. Philosophers and psychologists have claimed its importance for the study of human thinking, emotion, decision making, and psychopathology. Until now research has mainly focused on death anxiety. Several death anxiety instruments have been developed and evaluated. This article is the first to review instruments measuring EA in a comprehensive way, that is, by covering several existential themes. Such instruments might be useful to gain insight in the interrelatedness of the aspects of EA, and application in clinical practice. Four models of EA were reviewed and compared resulting in a working definition. This definition was used to develop a search strategy that, after an initial screening, yielded 532 potentially relevant articles. A total of 78 instruments were identified, most of them measuring death anxiety. Five instruments were included that had a comprehensive perspective on EA. These were further evaluated using the consensus-based standards for the selection of health measurement instruments (COSMIN) criteria for publications about test development. The Existential Anxiety Questionnaire, turned out to be the most thoroughly examined, with promising results. The article concludes with recommendations about development and use of EA instruments.
ISSN:0022-1678
1552-650X
DOI:10.1177/0022167814542048