Deck 1: As We Think About Death

Question 1

Kastenbaum observed that Hollywood portrayals of death emphasize all the following EXCEPT the notion:

A) that the doctor is the most important person to pay attention to when someone is dying
B) of open communication, as in interpersonal connecting with significant words of parting
C) that deception and sentimentalism are the best approaches
D) that a sanitized version of dying is the best approach.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

A new question has arisen about gory details on television programs such as CSI and whether their portrayal of death serves to ______ death.

A) coldly analyze
B) expose the emotions surrounding
C) depersonalize
D) mystify.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

The ______ is a person who is quick to introduce a fatalistic statement, often as an attempt to end a discussion about death before it begins.

A) listener
B) fatalist
C) silencer
D) instigator.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

The leading cause of death for the population in general is:

A) suicide
B) motor vehicle accident
C) heart disease
D) cancer.

Question 5

The earliest childhood memory reported by most adults is an experience of:

A) joy
B) death
C) anger
D) sadness.

Question 6

Of the 100 individuals Jack Kevorkian "assisted" in death, how many were terminally ill?

A) one half
B) more than one-half
C) one third
D) less than one-third.

Question 7

One study that followed patients through their postoperative period found that:

A) those with positive religious coping styles experienced more pain and distress
B) those with positive religious coping styles experienced no pain or distress
C) those with positive religious coping styles experienced less pain and distress
D) doubt and conflict in religious beliefs had no effect on health outcomes.

Question 8

Personal experience with dying and death influences our:

A) attitudes and beliefs
B) beliefs
C) feelings and attitudes
D) attitudes, beliefs, and feelings.

Question 9

Which of the following is NOT true of living wills?

A) The option of having a living will has been available since 1968.
B) Most people in the United States have initiated a living will.
C) These documents were designed to give individuals influence over the last few days of life.
D) These documents define the type of medical interventions to be carried out if death is close and the individual is unable to express his or her wishes.

Question 10

Studies have found that the people who sign organ donor cards are:

A) less anxious about death
B) more self-reliant
C) feel more effective
D) all of the above.

Question 11

A study found that those who crossed the street in a high risk-taking manner were:

A) more likely to have attempted suicide in the past
B) more likely to be women
C) less likely to take high risks when they drive
D) less frustrated with their lives.

Question 12

Upon viewing his friend Ivan Ilych's corpse, Peter Ivanovich:

A) prayed for both Ilych's soul and his own
B) sorrowed for Ilych's widow and children
C) tried to differentiate and distance himself from Ilych
D) tried to persuade himself that the man in the coffin was not really Ilych.

Question 13

Which of the following is NOT one of the criticisms Kastenbaum highlighted regarding research using death anxiety scales?

A) Studies often involve resurveying participants many times.
B) Low scores are difficult to interpret.
C) It is not known what a healthy or normal score would be.
D) Little is learned about participants' beliefs or attitudes.

Question 14

Most self-report studies find that the general population has a ______ level of death anxiety.

A) very low
B) low to moderate
C) moderate to high
D) very high

Question 15

Most self-report studies find that:

A) women have higher death anxiety scores than men
B) elderly adults have higher death anxiety scores than younger adults
C) people with psychiatric conditions do not differ in death anxiety scores from the general population
D) death anxiety scores tend to decrease in later middle age.

Question 16

Studies regarding age and death anxiety show that death anxiety:

A) dramatically increases as people reach their 70s
B) shows either no age differences or decreases somewhat in the later adult years
C) decrease as one enters adolescence
D) revolve around fears of violent death for elderly adults.

Question 17

In a longitudinal study conducted in the United States that examined the relationship between religiousness and fear of death and dying, researchers found:

A) strong religious beliefs did not provide an effective buffer against fear of death
B) strong religious beliefs led to decreased death anxiety in later adult years
C) highly religious people reported the least amount of death anxiety
D) non-religious people reported higher degrees of death anxiety.

Question 18

The apprehensiveness and restlessness we carry around with us in everyday life is sometimes called:

A) death anxiety
B) trait anxiety
C) death denial
D) self-denial.

Question 19

"We cannot really fear death, because we cannot really imagine our own death." This statement is at the core of the ______ death anxiety theory.

A) existential
B) terror management
C) early Freudian psychoanalytic
D) edge.

Question 20

Which of the following is NOT true of the early psychoanalytic perspective on death anxiety?

A) Death anxiety comes into consciousness as we learn to comprehend our own annihilation.
B) The unconscious does not understand the concept of negation, so it can't erase itself.
C) The unconscious does not respond to time and so doesn't understand an end of time.
D) Castration anxiety is the source of death anxiety.

Question 21

"Our fears take many specific forms but can be traced back to our sense of vulnerability to death." This statement is at the core of the ______ death anxiety theory.

A) existential
B) terror management
C) early psychoanalytic
D) edge.

Question 22

Which of the following is NOT consistent with terror management theory?

A) High self-esteem provides protection against death anxiety.
B) Society encourages evasions and fantasies as protection against death anxiety.
C) Developing one's own accurate view of personal dying and death provides protection against death anxiety.
D) People should act in accordance with their society's collective representation.

Question 23

Which of the following statements is NOT consistent with edge theory?

A) It distinguishes between everyday low levels of death anxiety and the alert and alarmed state that is aroused when we encounter danger.
B) It emphasizes survival functions.
C) It is consistent with existential theory.
D) It emphasizes adaptational functions.

Question 24

The individual who is not "in denial," but simply directing his or her attention to whatever seems most salient in the moment is demonstrating:

A) deception
B) compartmentalizing
C) selective response
D) selective attention.

Question 25

The individual who fully comprehends the reality of his or her situation but decides to fight for life as long as possible is demonstrating:

A) resistance
B) deception
C) compartmentalizing
D) selective response.

Question 26

In ______, dying and death reality is acknowledged, but the person stops just short of realizing the situation.

A) resistance
B) deception
C) compartmentalizing
D) selective attention.

Question 27

The statement "It would be better if I did not let others know how I feel right now" is an example of:

A) resistance
B) deception
C) denial
D) selective response.

Question 28

The statement "A touch of indigestion, that's all" is an example of:

A) resistance
B) denial
C) compartmentalizing
D) selective attention.

Question 29

A woman who was discovered intently sweeping the floor of her home after a tornado had passed through the city, while the floor was practically all that was remaining of her home, is an example of:

A) resistance
B) denial (temporary)
C) compartmentalizing
D) deception.

Question 30

Prolongation of life was the primary mission of:

A) alchemy
B) astronomy
C) necromancy
D) nepotism.

Question 31

Through the centuries, most people died before what we now would consider to be midlife.

Question 32

The statements, "There's nothing to think about. When you're number's up, it's up" are representative of a fatalistic view.

Question 33

Observing your own responses to self-inventory of attitudes, beliefs, and feelings toward death is part of the self-monitoring process that has been found invaluable by many people who work systematically with death-related issues.

Question 34

A person born in the United States in 1900 had an average life expectancy of 42 years.

Question 35

About one person in three in the United States now chooses cremation.

Question 36

Cryonic suspension is another word used for cremation.

Question 37

Homicide rates have been consistently the highest in Southern states.

Question 38

Researchers have found that individuals who choose NOT to be organ donors often have a fear of being declared dead prematurely.

Question 39

Mortality salience can only be a factor in a research study for participants who have been exposed directly to death, such as soldiers and paramedics.

Question 40

Nearly 200 human bodies have been placed in cryonic suspension worldwide.

Question 41

A survey of studies conducted in 15 nations showed that women tend to have higher death anxiety scores on self-report scales.

Question 42

Death anxiety tends to be relatively high in adolescence and early adulthood.

Question 43

A study by Russac et al. (2007) found that women experienced a secondary peak in death anxiety as they entered their fifties.

Question 44

It is unusual for people to experience an upsurge of death anxiety when they realize how close they have come to being killed in a motor vehicle accident.

Question 45

In Freud's view, thanatophobia is the result of castration anxiety.

Question 46

Becker, an advocate of the existential position, argues that death anxiety is the root of schizophrenia.

Question 47

A criticism of Freud's and Becker's positions about death anxiety is that basic assumptions of both of these perspectives appear to be beyond empirical investigation.

Question 48

Denial, in the psychiatric sense, is a primitive defense mechanism that is ineffective in the long term.

Question 49

Both compartmentalizing and denial involve a disconnection of one aspect of a death-related situation from another.

Question 50

Acceptance and denial can be evaluated only when we are in a position to understand the context a given person is in, what is trying to be accomplished, and what is being faced.

Question 51

What is the definition of the terms

-Uniform Anatomical Gift Act

Question 52

What is the definition of the terms

-Death anxiety

Question 53

What is the definition of the terms

-Denial

Question 54

What is the definition of the terms

-Edge theory

Question 55

What is the definition of the terms

-Fatalism

Question 56

What is the definition of the terms

-Living will

Question 57

What is the definition of the terms

-Mortality salience

Question 58

What is the definition of the terms

-Ontological confrontation

Question 59

What is the definition of the terms

-Post-traumatic stress disorder

Question 60

What is the definition of the terms

-Schizophrenia

Question 61

What is the definition of the terms

-Taoism

Question 62

What is the definition of the terms

-Terror management theory

Question 63

What is the definition of the terms

-Thanatophobia

Question 64

Explain the differences between these terms: attitudes, beliefs, feelings

Question 65

Describe how levels of death anxiety change as we move through the major stages of life.

Question 66

Describe the two opposite approaches of Malinowski and Radcliffe-Brown, both anthropologists, in explaining the role of religion in death anxiety.

Question 67

List Kastenbaum's five premises regarding denial and acceptance of death.

Question 68

Give a brief description of the Taoist view of life and death.

Question 69

List any five social conditions that limited individuals in their understanding of death-related issues, and then demonstrate how not thinking about death was a failed experiment.

Question 70

Describe the five difficulties researchers encounter when using death anxiety scales.

Question 71

Describe, then compare and contrast, the major elements of the early psychoanalytic, existential, and edge theories of death anxiety.

Question 72

Explain why it is so easy to confuse denial with other coping methods. Give two examples of processes that are often confused with denial, and explain how those processes are not denial.

Question 73

List and explain any three factors concerning the interpersonal side of acceptance and denial.