Presenting a broad coverage of this major area of studies on death and dying, this book provides a systematic presentation of the six most widely used and best validated measures of death anxiety, threat and fear. These chapters consider the available data on the psychometric properties of each instrument and summarize research using them, and also supply a copy of the instrument with scoring keys - to facilitate their use. In addition, other chapters make use of the instrumentation by pursuing questions of applied significance in various health care settings nursing homes, psychotherapy, death education, near death experiences, persons with AIDS, experiences of bereaved young adults.; An introductory chapter introduces the major philosophical and psychological theories of the causes and consequences of death anxiety in adult life, and a closing chapter gives an overview of death education and how this affects attitudes towards death and dying.

I: Theoretical Overview; 1: Death Anxiety in Adult Life- Theoretical Perspectives; II: Research Instruments; 2: A Revised Death Anxiety Scale; 3: The Collett-Lester Fear of Death Scale; II: The Threat Index and Related Methods; 5: Validity and Reliability of the Multidimensional Fear of Death Scale; 6: Death Attitude Profile-Revised: A Multidimensional Measure of Attitudes Toward Death; 7: Death Competency: Bugen's Coping with Death Scale and Death Self-Efficacy; III: Applications; 8: Reduced Death Threat in Near-Death Experiencers; 9: Death Threat, Parental Loss, and Interpersonal Style: A Personal Construct Investigation; 10: Death Depression and Death Anxiety in HIV-Infected Males; 11: Death Concern and Attitudes Toward the Elderly in Nursing Home Personnel; 12: Psychological Defenses Against Death Anxiety; 13: Changing Death Attitudes Through Death Education; IV: Conclusion; 14: Death Attitudes in Adult Life: A Closing Coda