Create a new account

It's simple, and free.

Coping Challenges pf Aging and Fear of Death

We all face coping challenges of varying intensity in our lives, and the ways in which we meet these has been the focus of much psychological research. Most researchers have been interested in finding out which coping skills or styles are most effective in dealing with a given problem and in mediating the stress-strain relationship. In this paper I will examine four recent research studies exploring the coping challenges presented by aging and the fear of death, living with chronic ulcerative colitis, acting as the primary caregiver for an Alzheimer's patient, and being a single mother.

Goebel & Boeck (1987) studied the relationship between Ericksonian stage theory and coping with the fear of death. Specifically, they tested the hypothesis that the level of resolution of Erickson's ego integrity versus despair stage is inversely related to the fear of death in older adults. In other words, they expected that a high level of ego integrity would lead to (or at least be significantly correlated with less fear of death; a low level of ego integrity was expected to be associated with a greater fear of death.

Goebel & Boeck (1987) were also interested in the effect that a major life event/stressor such as institutionalization would have on the fear of death. They hypothesized that being in an institution would lead to a greater fear of death because of the lack of personal control, reduced social supports, and ever-present evidence of death.

Ego integrity is basically the acceptance of the life cycle and an overall satisfaction with one's life events an achievements. Goebel & Boeck (1987) operationalized ego integrity as a combination of reminiscence, life satisfaction, and developmental task achievement. They measured the level of ego integrity with a 28-item integrity versus despair scale consisting of seven items from each of four instruments used by earlier researchers to measure the individual variables. The fear of de...

Page 1 of 11 Next >

More on Coping Challenges pf Aging and Fear of Death...

Loading...
APA     MLA     Chicago
Coping Challenges pf Aging and Fear of Death. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 12:00, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1683829.html