CT Death Anxiety & Psychology 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which psychological construct describes the capacity to find meaning and purpose in life despite full awareness of one's mortality?
- Ego integrity
- Death transcendence (Correct answer)
- Mortality salience
- Existential isolation
Correct answer: Death transcendence
Death transcendence refers to the ability to find meaning and engage fully with life even while acknowledging the certainty of death, a key concept in existential and positive psychology.
Question 2: According to Robert Kastenbaum, 'death anxiety' and 'fear of death' are best understood as:
- Identical constructs measured by the same tools
- Distinct but related phenomena with different cognitive and emotional components (Correct answer)
- Pathological states requiring clinical intervention
- Universal responses absent in cultures with strong afterlife beliefs
Correct answer: Distinct but related phenomena with different cognitive and emotional components
Kastenbaum distinguished death anxiety (diffuse, generalized unease about mortality) from fear of death (more focused, object-directed), noting they have different manifestations and measurement needs.
Question 3: The 'mortality salience hypothesis' predicts that reminders of death will lead people to:
- Seek immediate social support from loved ones
- Strengthen adherence to their cultural worldview (Correct answer)
- Reduce risky behaviors to preserve life
- Increase empathy for outgroup members
Correct answer: Strengthen adherence to their cultural worldview
The mortality salience hypothesis, central to Terror Management Theory, predicts that death reminders cause people to more strongly defend and affirm their cultural worldviews as an anxiety buffer.
Question 4: A 70-year-old patient expresses contentment with their life and readiness to die. According to Erikson's theory, this reflects successful resolution of:
- Generativity vs. stagnation
- Ego integrity vs. despair (Correct answer)
- Identity vs. role confusion
- Intimacy vs. isolation
Correct answer: Ego integrity vs. despair
Erikson's final psychosocial stage, ego integrity vs. despair, involves reviewing one's life and achieving acceptance of its course, which supports a peaceful confrontation with death.
Question 5: Which theoretical framework specifically emphasizes that death anxiety arises from the conflict between the human desire for life and the biological certainty of death?
- Object relations theory
- Existential psychology as articulated by Irvin Yalom (Correct answer)
- Cognitive behavioral theory
- Attachment theory
Correct answer: Existential psychology as articulated by Irvin Yalom
Irvin Yalom's existential psychology frames death anxiety as arising from the fundamental conflict between the will to live and the inevitable reality of death, one of four core existential concerns.
Question 6: Research on death anxiety across the lifespan generally shows that death anxiety is:
- Highest in adolescence and declines steadily with age
- Highest in middle adulthood and lower in both younger and older adults (Correct answer)
- Uniformly high across all adult age groups
- Exclusively present in those with terminal illness
Correct answer: Highest in middle adulthood and lower in both younger and older adults
Research consistently finds death anxiety peaks in middle adulthood, when people often have dependents, responsibilities, and a growing awareness of their own aging, while older adults tend to report lower levels.
Question 7: In the context of death anxiety, 'symbolic immortality' as described by Robert Lifton refers to:
- Religious beliefs in a literal afterlife
- Ways humans transcend death through legacy, creativity, nature, or spiritual experience (Correct answer)
- Medical life extension technologies
- Denial of death's reality
Correct answer: Ways humans transcend death through legacy, creativity, nature, or spiritual experience
Lifton described five modes of symbolic immortality — biological, creative, theological, natural, and experiential — through which humans psychologically transcend death without literal survival.
CT Death Anxiety & Psychology 3
Which psychological construct describes the capacity to find meaning and purpose in life despite full awareness of one's mortality?