Knowra Death anxiety Death anxiety Death anxiety is fear, apprehension, or distress concerning one’s own death, the process of dying, or the death of others. It ranges from ordinary awareness of mortality to persistent, impairing distress.
Terror management theory : A social-psychological theory proposing that cultural worldviews and self-esteem help buffer awareness of mortality. It explains how reminders of death can intensify anxiety and motivate defenses of identity and belief.
Cognitive behavioral therapy : A structured psychotherapy that addresses links among thoughts, emotions, and behavior. It can help people examine catastrophic beliefs and reduce avoidance associated with death fears.
Irvin D. Yalom : An American psychiatrist and psychotherapist known for writing on existential psychotherapy and group therapy. His clinical account treats death as a central existential concern that can shape everyday life.
Thanatophobia : An intense, persistent fear of death or dying that causes significant distress or impairment. Unlike ordinary death anxiety, thanatophobia denotes fear severe enough to disrupt functioning.
Death Attitude Profile–Revised : A questionnaire measuring multiple attitudes toward death, including fear, avoidance, and acceptance. Its separate scales show why death anxiety cannot always be captured as a single attitude.
Mortality salience : The heightened accessibility of thoughts about death after a person encounters a reminder of mortality. It names the activation of death-related thoughts studied in experiments on death anxiety.
Acceptance and commitment therapy : A psychotherapy that builds psychological flexibility through acceptance, mindfulness, and values-guided action. It addresses mortality distress by changing the struggle with fearful thoughts rather than promising certainty.
Ernest Becker : An American cultural anthropologist whose work examined how people manage awareness of mortality. His account of mortality denial helped inspire terror management theory.
Necrophobia : A specific phobia involving fear of corpses or things associated with death. It centers on dead bodies and death-related objects, not necessarily one’s own mortality.
Death Anxiety Scale : A self-report questionnaire developed by Donald Templer to assess fear and anxiety related to death. Its measurement history raises questions about whether death anxiety is one trait or several.
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