Death anxiety: “State” or “trait”?

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Abstract
Investigated relative effects of hypnosis, alpha biofeedback, prestige suggestion, and silence in attenuating experimentally induced increases in death anxiety. Forty female undergraduate Ss at Louisiana State University were tested on four measures of death anxiety: “Emotional” associations to “death” words, association response latencies to “death” vs. “neutral” words, Death Anxiety Scale, and Death Concern Scale. Ss then were assigned to four treatments: (1) Hypnosis, with anxiolytic post-hypnotic relaxation suggestions; (2) Nonhypnotic anxiolytic prestige suggestions; (3) EEG alphacontingent biofeedback; and (4) a 15-minute waiting period. After treatments, Ss viewed a tape-slide presentation that emphasized personal death and overestimated its probability from various causes. Ss then were retested on death anxiety measures, forms of which were counterbalanced within groups. Analysis of variance (at .05 and .01 confidence levels) failed to differentiate groups on either increases or decreases of death anxiety. It was concluded that death anxiety may be a “trait” as opposed to a “state” phenomenon.

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