Self Report Studies of Death Anxiety

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Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of self-report studies of death anxiety. What do self-report studies indicate about the level of death anxiety in most Americans? In the study of death anxiety, researchers and theorists have often used self-report questionnaires as a preferred tool in the search for answers. Self-reports provide us with a simple method of gauging people’s feelings, attitudes, and beliefs. It is difficult to measure a person’s attitude or belief based on observation alone. This is why self-reports are so advantageous to the researcher. They allow participants to describe their own feelings. They are normally quick to administer and do not require any fancy technology, providing convenience to the researcher. Another advantage of this method of research is it allows for the concise and exact use of words in writing the questionnaire, leading to more direct answers of what you are looking for. Although these are all great reasons why self-report questionnaires are beneficial to the researcher, there are some disadvantages which limit the amount we can learn from the results. In general, the typical study fails to explore respondent’s attitudes or feelings on more than one occasion. This does not allow the researcher to see how respondents will express their feelings at another time or in another situation. In addition, the accuracy of the answers given is disputable based on the fact that people tend to lie or skew their answers in order to make themselves look better. Some groups of people also continue to be overrepresented while others are underrepresented. In particular, college students seem to be the group of choice while ethnic and racial minorities are not represented as much. When specifically studying death anxiety, Kastenbaum (2010) states, “little is learned about the respondent’s overall attitude structure or belief system;
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