Search

We begin with a review of death anxiety in emerging adults and then report on a descriptive survey study using the Revised Livingston-Zimet Death Anxiety Scale (RLZDAS). Research questions dealt with the RLZDAS' factor structure, demographic patterns, and hypothesized correlations with distress and religiosity/spirituality. We surveyed university-enrolled emerging adults (n = 706). Findings included a 3-factor solution on the RLZDAS (cognitive, repressive, and affective) and no appreciable relationships with demographic factors. Clinical symptomatology was correlated with death anxiety (r = .40), particularly cognitive death anxiety (r = .45), especially in non-believers (r = .58). Religiosity/spirituality did not buffer death anxiety, and some components were actually positively correlated. We argue that death anxiety in emerging adults is multidimensional, clinically relevant, and relatively universal and that broad notions of worldview/belief are not necessarily protective factors.

Terror management theory (TMT) places death anxiety in an explanatory role in cognition, affect, and behavior, spanning mental health to cultural trends. We aimed to connect TMT to trait death anxiety, and propose an additional component: "life acknowledgement" (life awareness, lived experience connection, liveliness engagement) which yields "vitality salience" when conscious. Participants (n = 156) were randomized to mortality, neutral, or vitality salience conditions, and completed assessments of self-esteem, generalized anxiety, and death anxiety (death and dying separately). Results indicated that death anxiety was independent of demographic factors; that death anxiety was correlated with generalized anxiety (r = 0.18 and r = 0.32) and self-esteem (r = -0.35 and r = -0.38); and that salience groups did not differ on the outcome measures. We concluded that existential salience priming operates separately from trait self-report. Findings supported trends in current literature, and prompted further questions regarding TMT and vitality salience.

In this argumentative literature review, we advocate an existentially-informed clinical psychology. Many of today's challenging societal issues would benefit from the lens of existentialism, and our field has seen an emergence of interest lately in topics such as death anxiety as a transdiagnostic construct. We see this context as opportune for an existential-psychological confluence of ideas and praxes. We identify and review here four relevant ongoing streams of literature (core existentialism philosophy, existentially-oriented psychotherapy, death anxiety psychometrics, and terror management theory) and argue in favour of their increasingly intertwined integration with one another and with the broader field of clinical psychology. We propose methods for both academics and practitioners alike to more fully embrace an existentially-informed mindset, culminating in a set of ten recommendations for clinical psychology across applied clinical work, research/scholarship, and pedagogy/supervision. Examples include increased use of qualitative data via case study and mixed-method approaches in our science, enhanced incorporation of existential themes (including but not limited to death anxiety) into psychotherapy, and adoption of a student-focused freedom-enhancing existential mindset in teaching. Our field has made great strides in deepening the understanding of how life's ultimate concerns inform mental health and functioning in recent years, and we support an even more robust endorsement of existential frameworks in clinical psychology to continue such progress. KEY POINTS What is already known about this topic: Existentialism is a humanistic philosophy, emphasizing choice, responsibility, authenticity, and acceptance of limitations in life. Scholarship in psychotherapy, psychometrics, and other psychological topics benefits from influences of existential philosophy. Death anxiety is a transdiagnostic etiological variable and therapies involving existential themes are empirically supported. What this topic adds: (1) Existentialism has many clinically useful lessons to offer psychology, across its teaching, research, and psychotherapy. (2) Areas of clinical psychology involving death anxiety, mortality salience, meaning-making, and others should be better integrated. (3) We advocate the adoption of an existentially-informed clinical psychology and offer suggestions for moving forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Terror management theory (TMT) places death anxiety in an explanatory role in cognition, affect, and behavior, spanning mental health to cultural trends. We aimed to connect TMT to trait death anxiety, and propose an additional component: life acknowledgement (life awareness, lived experience connection, liveliness engagement) which yields vitality salience when conscious. Participants (n = 156) were randomized to mortality, neutral, or vitality salience conditions, and completed assessments of self-esteem, generalized anxiety, and death anxiety (death and dying separately). Results indicated that death anxiety was independent of demographic factors; that death anxiety was correlated with generalized anxiety (r = . 18 and r = .32) and self-esteem (r = -.35 and r = -.38); and that salience groups did not differ on the outcome measures. We concluded that existential salience priming operates separately from trait self-report. Findings supported trends in current literature, and prompted further questions regarding TMT and vitality salience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]