Templer Death Anxiety Scale [TDAS-15]

Description

The Templer Death Anxiety Scale (TDAS-15) is a psychometric instrument developed by Donald I. Templer in 1970 to assess anxiety and fear related to death and the process of dying. The scale consists of 15 statements, each answered as either “true” or “false.”

The TDAS-15 is a brief and easy-to-administer instrument that provides a quantitative assessment of death anxiety and can be used in both research and clinical contexts.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the TDAS-15 is the quantitative measurement of death anxiety across different populations, helping researchers and practitioners better understand how concerns about death may influence psychological functioning and behavior.

The scale may also be used to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions aimed at reducing death-related anxiety.

Scoring

Each of the 15 items is answered as “true” or “false.” The total score is calculated by summing the responses that indicate higher death anxiety. Higher total scores correspond to higher levels of death-related anxiety.

According to the source material, standardization includes the establishment of scoring thresholds that allow differentiation between varying levels of death anxiety.

Data Analysis and Use

Data analysis may include the calculation of Cronbach’s alpha to assess internal consistency and the use of factor analysis to examine the underlying structure of the scale.

The TDAS-15 can be used in research examining death anxiety in different populations and in studies exploring its relationships with other psychological variables, including depression, general anxiety, and quality of life.

Reliability and Validity

The TDAS has been examined for reliability and validity across different samples. According to the source material, its reliability has been supported through repeated testing, while its structure may be evaluated using factor-analytic methods.

The provided document does not report specific numerical reliability coefficients or detailed validity indices.

Applications

The Templer Death Anxiety Scale may be used in psychological and clinical research, health-related studies, and quality-of-life research, particularly in populations for whom issues of death and mortality are of particular psychological or therapeutic relevance.

Its brief format and straightforward scoring procedure make the TDAS-15 suitable for research studies, group comparisons, and the assessment of changes following interventions.

References

Templer, D. I. (1970). The construction and validation of a death anxiety scale. Journal of General Psychology, 82(2), 165–177.

Abdel-Khalek, A. M. (2005). Death anxiety in clinical and non-clinical groups. Psychological Reports, 96(2), 547–558.

Neimeyer, R. A. (1994). Death Anxiety Handbook: Research, Instrumentation, and Application. Taylor & Francis.

Thorson, J. A., & Powell, F. C. (1992). A revised death anxiety scale. Death Studies, 16(6), 507–521.