Life Experience with Death: Relation to Death Attitudes and to the Use of Death-Related Memories

The study examines the relation of death experience to death attitudes and to autobiographical memory use. Participants (N = 52) completed standard death attitude measures and wrote narratives about a death-related autobiographical memory and (for comparison) a memory of a low point. Self-ratings of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Death studies 2008-07, Vol.32 (6), p.524-549
Main Authors: Bluck, Susan, Dirk, Judith, Mackay, Michael M., Hux, Ashley
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation, Psychological
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Anxiety
Attitude Measures
Attitude to Death
Autobiographies
Coping
Correlation
Death
Death & dying
Fear
Fear - psychology
Female
Florida
Health technology assessment
Hospices
Humans
Life Change Events
Male
Memory
Middle Aged
Psychological Patterns
Studies
Surveys and Questionnaires
Volunteers
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Summary:The study examines the relation of death experience to death attitudes and to autobiographical memory use. Participants (N = 52) completed standard death attitude measures and wrote narratives about a death-related autobiographical memory and (for comparison) a memory of a low point. Self-ratings of the memory narratives were used to assess their functional use. Results show that higher levels of experience with death were related to lower levels of death anxiety and avoidance. Participants with higher levels of death experience also more frequently used their death-related memories to serve adaptive functions.
ISSN:0748-1187
1091-7683
DOI:10.1080/07481180802138860