Validation of a fear of death scale using a state-trait anxiety construct

The present study investigated the contextual effect on state anxiety caused by an immediately prior administration of a fear of death scale. It was hyoothesized that the death related stimulus material would result in an increase in anxiety. Therefore, state anxiety would be greater for the subjects completing the fear of death scale than for those completing an innocuous and general personality inventory. It was also hypothesized that the fear of death scale score and the state anxiety score would be significantly correlated in the fear of death scale condition. The 238 subjects were undergraduate volunteers. They were divided into two groups at random. The experimental group completed a fear of death scale, then a state-trait anxiety inventory. The control group completed a social desirability scale, then a state-trait anxiety inventory. It was found that the experimental group scored significantly higher on the state-trait anxiety inventory. It was also found that the scores for both the state and trait components of the state-trait anxiety inventory and the fear of death scale were significantly correlated for the experimental group.