Tests George Homans' contention that religion arouses a sense of anxiety concerning death and then alleviates the anxiety it creates. Evidence seems to indicate that religiosity may serve the dual function of afflicting the comforted and comforting the afflicted. (Author)

Explores approach to dealing with human death. Describes floating perspective, based on insights from Choron and Jaspers, as suggesting it is possible to deal with human death by refraining from taking ultimate position on the problem. Position encourages openness to death. Examines role of anxiety and describes possible meaningful outcomes of…

Assessed personality functioning in 19 fatally and chronically ill outpatient children. Found important differences in measures of distress that are thought to be roughly the same. Suggests the most common empirical methods are poorly fitted to the task of understanding the distress of fatally or chronically ill children. (Author/JAC)

Hospice patient/family volunteers responded to personality questionnaires prior to training and to measures of death understanding and coping before and after training. Results showed that the volunteers were relatively low in anxiety, internally controlled, and empathetic before training. Following training, volunteers reported better…

Administered measures of overt and covert fear of death to 20 healthy men and 13 men diagnosed with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Groups did not differ significantly on overt measure; AIDS group had higher total scores on covert measure. Findings suggest that one's life trajectory is redefined when the diagnosis of terminal illness…

Explores the social nature of denial and the functionality of denial in preserving relationships threatened by knowledge of terminal illness. Asserts that denial serves to forestall social withdrawal by the patient and his/her social circle, as well as promoting role enactments necessary to medical treatment. (Author)