Psychology7 papers
Measuring the unmeasurable: Psychometric tools for Existential Concerns
Key psychometric instruments for measuring existential concerns: meaning in life, existential isolation, and existential anxiety.
ES
Evgeny Smirnov
All Reviews
PsychologyNiche
intermediate
Death Anxiety Handbook: Research, Instrumentation, And Application
Edited By Robert A. Neimeyer (2015)
- Published
- Dec 22, 2015
At a GlanceAI
Handbook synthesizing theory and validated instruments for assessing death anxiety, threat, and attitudes, with guidance for research and practice.
SummaryAI
This edited volume matters because it addresses a chronic problem in death-anxiety research: heavy use of convenient but psychometrically weak measures and weak theory-to-measure fit. It consolidates six of the most used and best-validated tools (with scoring keys) and critically reviews their reliability, validity, dimensionality, and appropriate applications. Beyond measurement, it links major philosophical/psychological theories to testable research directions and illustrates applied uses in settings like nursing homes, psychotherapy, HIV care, near-death experiences, and death education. The implication is a more cumulative, comparable literature—where investigators choose measures based on constructs and populations, not just face validity or a single alpha value.
Method Snapshot
Mostly empirical, though there are some theoretical considerations.
Background
death studies; background in psychological measurement/psychometrics and basic thanatology/clinical or health psychology concepts
A really nice collection of the instruments of how to assess death atittudes or anxiety
— ES