International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 2, Issue 12, December-2011 1
ISSN 2229-5518
The Study of the Quality of Life and Personality Traits of NEO Five Factors Concerning Death Anxiety in Shahed University Students
Dr. Mohammad Ebrahim Maddahi,Dr.Javad Khalatbari, Mona Samadzadeh, Mehdi Amraei, Reza Ahmadi, Mohammad Mojtaba
Keikhayfarzaneh
Abstract— The present research aims to consider the relationship between quality of life and personality traits and death anxiety. Personality traits consists of five components of NEO five factors questionnaire including Neuroticism, openness, agreeableness, extraversion and being conscientious, respectively. 55 Shahed University students were selected as controls. Quality of life scales for adults (pwi-A) of Cummins (2004) is used to assess the quality of life of the subjects, and the Neo-short form questionnaire of Costa and Mckery is used to assess the subject’s personality traits, and Templer questionnaire is used to assess the subject’s death an xiety. The correlation coefficient is used to statistically analyze the research data. The obtained results showed that there is a positive and significant correlation between quality of life and agreeable personality traits and a significant negative correlation between neurotic personality traits. Additionally, there is a positive non-significant relationship between quality of life and other personality traits ( extraversion, openness, and being conscientious) but a significant negative correlation with death anxiety. There is also a positive significant correlation with death anxiety and neurotic personality traits, a negative significant correlation with agreeable personality traits and a negative non-significant correlation with other personality traits ( extraversion, openness and being conscientious).
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e are always affected by death phobia and we are come across by it many times during our life and then we defend against it which is mostly based on denial and it
helps in coping with death. However, we cannot remove it from our mind and we are always affected by it in our dreams and imaginations. We are also fascinated by death in child- hood and one of the most important evolutionary tasks is to cope with the fear of annihilation [1]. Because of the fact that there is a close relationship between death and life and also the individual’s personality traits can be effective in life im- provement and also the amount of death phobia and the re- search is limited in Iran, this question is raised that is there is a relationship between quality of life and personality traits and death anxiety? If so, what variables and personality traits are effective in? since so many personality traits and variables has not yet been identified with death anxiety and also death and mental problems related to death anxiety such as phobia, exis- tential anxiety, hypochondriasis and obsession, etc, is increas-
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Shahed University, Department of Psychology, Tehran, Iran.
Department of Psychology, Ramsar Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ram- sar, Iran
University of Science & Culture, Department of Family Therapy, Tehran, Iran
Shahed University, Department of Psychology, Tehran, Iran.
Shahed University, Department of Psychology, Tehran, Iran.
Department of Psychology, Zahedan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Zahedan, Iran
ing [2], it seems that such an applicable and basic research are very important and so necessary. In addition, identifying these variables and personality traits associated with death anxiety can be lead to a better understanding of their relationship which is so helpful in increasing the quality of life and com- munity health of researchers , therapists, psychologists and psychiatrists.
In a research conducted by Alward and colleagues (2006), the relationship between religious variables and depression and death anxiety has been examined. The results indicated that those who have low amount of depression and death an- xiety have much stronger faith and are more thoughtful to the life after death. The findings also discussed this issue that reli- gious faith is more related to death anxiety than the religious practices. Manada Watt and Kawchehlova (2007) studied the effect of age, gender and environmental conditions on the amount of death anxiety in elderly people in India. A sample consists of 299 people with the mean age of 70 years have been selected for this reason. The research results showed that women and older subjects and also those who are living with their families significantly indicate higher amount of death anxiety . The results achieved from the effects of age and gender related to death anxiety in this Indian sample is the same as those of the western samples.
In a research conducted by Soheil and Akram ( 2002 ), the
relationship between death anxiety and gender, age and reli-
gion among 132 randomly selected subjects have been studied.
The research results showed that older women and also those
subjects who have weaker faiths showed more fear to an im-
minent death. It is also indicated that women and the subjects who had weaker faith showed more anxiety concerning vari-
ous aspects of death such as short life passing, complete isola- tion affected by death, fear of destruction and disintegration of
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body after death compared with their peers [3].
Kowin Wersnikof (1985) studied the relationship between
death anxiety and sense of purpose in life and perception of
time. The research showed that people with high death anxie- ty complain about diminished sense of purpose to their life. In
an another study studied the relationship between death an- xiety and age, Rasmosen (1996) showed that the difference in death anxiety may be because of the third variable namely psychological maturity indicated in the theory proposed by Ericson. Rasmosen (1996) showed that psychological maturity is a stronger maturity in predicting the death anxiety related to age by itself [3].
Diavla and colleagues (2003) studied in a research the rela- tionship between death anxiety, their attitudes towards elder- ly people and individual anxiety related to among elderly men and women. A sample consisted of 197 men and women were selected for this reason. The research results showed that neg- ative attitudes towards other adults can be predicted by indi- vidual anxieties related to old age and death, especially fear- ing from unknown things. Women score higher than their male counterparts in the sub-scales of fear of dying and multi- dimensional fear of death. The reports are also indicated that the African-American subjects achieved higher levels than Caucasian subjects in each three scales of multi-dimensional fear of death, fear of the unknown things and fear of death in awareness [3].
Sarvandian and Hassanpour ( 2003) studied, in a research, the comparison between sense of loneliness and fear of death among women and elderly men living in Ahwaz city, and se- lected a sample size of 60 women and 30 men ( by simple ran- dom sampling ) for doing this research, and the results showed that there is a significant difference between the fear of death and loneliness among elderly men and women.
Considering this issue is interesting from various dimen- sions, firstly, it can theoretically be joined in this kind of re- search set; in particular, the research is limited in this regard. Secondly, because the world is developing towards being modernized and the quality of life has been increased today, this research can be used to show the impact of quality of life on death anxiety. Thirdly, since in psychology, it is aimed for reducing disorders and enhancing the amount communities’ mental health, this research could be a turning point for what variables are effective in increasing and decreasing death an- xiety. And finally, if the personality traits associated with an- xiety can be predicted, more success can be achieved in reduc- ing anxiety and increasing the quality of life of the communi- ties.
Three research tools are used to study the regarded variables in this research including: the quality of life questionnaire for adults (PWI-A) of Cummins, NEO personality traits question- naire, Costa’s and McCurry’s short form and Templer’s death anxiety questionnaire.
•The quality of life questionnaire for adults (PWI-A) of
Cummins.
•NEO-FFI personality traits questionnaire.
•Templer’s death anxiety questionnaire.
The quality of life questionnaire for adults (PWI-A) is used
to consider the quality of life of the questionnaire for adults
(PWI-A). This scale is made to be used by general adult popu- lation (Kamins, 2004). The questionnaire contains seven satis-
faction articles that each one is concerned to one scope of qual- ity of life. Each of the questions is scored between 0-10 from the subjects. The scores achieved in each seven question were added up to obtain the general score of quality of life of the scale and then it is compared with the normative data. Corre- lation coefficient resulted from twice application for the in- tended questionnaire is r=0.81 and Cronbach’s alpha of the questionnaire was 0.90 in the mentioned sample, respectively. The research findings indicate desirable reliability for the quality of life questionnaire (PWI-A) in the Iranian community (Naiinian & Sheri under publication) [4]. The validity is also obtained 61% which indicates acceptable convergent validity of the quality of life questionnaire (PWI-A) for the Iranian community.
The quality of life questionnaire (NEO-FFI) is used to con- sider the personality traits of NEO-FFI questionnaire. This tool includes 60 questions and there is 12 articles to each factor which this articles were chosen according to having the high- est load factor associated with the desired trait. Response to this articles is possible in the form of 5-degrees Likert scale and the dimensions such as mental irritation, extroversion, openness, agreeableness and responsibility are assessed (Rou- shan Chesli and colleagues, 2006) [5].
The results of several studies indicate that the NEO-FFI sub- scales have good internal consistency. For example, Costa and McCurry reported the alpha coefficient between 0.68 ( for agreeableness) and 0.86 ( for mental irritation). Helden re- ported the alpha coefficient of this five factors in the range of
0.76 ( for agreeableness) and 0.87 ( for mental irritation). In
another study, CRonbach’s alpha was between in the range of
0.73 ( for agreeableness) and 0.87 ( for mental irritation), re-
spectively. It is indicated in an another research the appropri-
ate internal consistency ( higher than 0.70) of five factors, and
in an another research conducted by ( Roshan Chelsi and col-
leagues, 2006), Cronbach’s alpha is shown for mental irrita- tion, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and responsibility as 0.84, 0.75, 0.74, 0.75 and 0.83, respectively [6].
McCurry and Costa mentioned that the shortened tool of NEO-FFI is exactly compatible with its complete form namely NEO-PI so that the shortened form scales have a high correla- tion of 0.68 with full-scale version of the NEO questionnaire. They reported in an another research that NEO -five -factor validity based on the spouse and peers assessments is in the range of 0.24 to 0.36 ( for responsibility) and 0.48 to 0.65 ( agreeableness). It has been reported in this study that this tool determines 85% of variance in the convergent validity [6].
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The Templer’s questionnaire is used to consider the death anxiety. This scale is a tool to measure death anxiety which is mostly applied one in its own types. This scale is a self-applied
CORRELATION TEST RESULTS BETWEEN DEATH ANXIETY AND QUALI- TY OF LIFE
questionnaire consists of 14 correct and incorrect questions. The scores ranged from 0-14 and high score indicates high rate
of death anxiety. In a research conducted by Rajabi and Bo- hrani in Ahwaz University, the validity coefficient of the aver- age scale of death anxiety was 0.62 and Cronbach’s alpha for
the whole questionnaire was 0.73. Correlation coefficient is
also calculated between death anxiety and the death worry
scale 0.40 and with apparent anxiety scale 4 [7].
The current research statistical community is all the male stu- dents (19-24 years) of Humanities College, Shahed University based on the available sampling method, in which 55 male subjects of Humanities College referred to the reference sec- tion of this college were chosen.
The present research is a correlation one aims to consider the relationship the concerned variables in this study. The Pearson correlation measurement method has been used to analyze the achieved data.
The results of statistical analysis of data regarding the con- cerned hypotheses indicates as the follows:
TABLE 1
THE RESULTS OF CORRELATION TEST BETWEEN DEATH ANXIETY AND
NEUROTIC PERSONALITY TRAITS
Correlation Coefficient Re- sults | Statistics |
The Amount of Correlation | 0.425 |
Significance Level | 0.001 |
Numbers | 55 |
According to table 1, correlation is significant between death anxiety and neurotic personality traits with 99% confidence. The obtained results show that neuroticism is increased when death anxiety is increased and neuroticism is divided to some disorders by itself as anxiety, phobia, hypochondriasis , obses- sion, depression, etc. As a result, high death anxiety means making the situations appropriate for a series of mental dis- orders which sub-branches of neuroticism. However, there is a negative non-significant relationship between anxiety and other personality traits such as extroversion, openness and being conscientious.
TABLE 2
According to table 2, there is a significant level between death
anxiety and quality of life with 99% confidence, that is, the
more a person scared of death, the less his/her quality of life,
and vice versa, that is, the more a person’s quality of life, the
less he/she has death anxiety. There is a relationship between
death anxiety and a series of mental disorders (neuroticism), and because some mental problems are created for individuals
by death anxiety, therefore It affects on individual’s under- standing of personal welfare welfare (quality of life defined by Frants is the same as our understanding of personal welfare ) [8] and there can be significant correlation amongst them, which this research result is compatible with the one con- ducted by Naderi and Esmaili ( 2008 ) concerning death anxie- ty and life satisfaction.
TABLE 3
CORRELATION TEST RESULTS BETWEEN NEUROTIC PERSONALITY
TRAITS AND QUALITY OF LIFE
Correlation coefficient re- sults | statistic |
The amount of correlation | -0.492 |
Significance level | 0.000 |
Number | 55 |
According to table 3, there is a significant correlation between the two variables with 99% confidence. The obtained results indicate that the more the quality of life is increased, the more the neurotic personality traits is increased including depres- sion, anxiety, hypochondriasis, fear, etc, and vice versa; that is, the more individual’s welfare and socio-economical conditions is desirable, the less his/her mental problems, and conse- quently, the less he/she prone to mental disorders. Quality of life defined by Sowan and colleagues is a multidimensional and intellectual concept including conceived emotional and mental-physical performance by the person [8]. Therefore, if someone’s quality of life is high, his/her neuroticism related to environment and the problems concerned will be de- creased.
TABLE 4
CORRELATION TEST RESULTS BETWEEN DEATH ANXIETY AND PER- SONALITY TRAITS OF AGREEABLENESS
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sults | |
The amount of correlation | -0.393 |
Significance level | 0.003 |
Number | 55 |
According to table 4, there is a significant correlation between the two variables with 99% confidence, and this indicates that when someone’s death anxiety is increased, the amount of his/her agreeableness is decreased and vice versa, therefore, it is confirmed that the relationship between the two variables is significant. Since an agreeable one is basically altruist. He is sympathetic towards others and is eager to help them and makes believe that others are mutually helpful and have good relationship with people and these features, especially having relationship with others, can decrease death anxiety.
TABLE 5
CORRELATION TEST RESULTS BETWEEN QUALITY OF LIFE AND PER-
SONALITY TRAITS OF AGREEABLENESS
Correlation coefficient re- sults | Statistic |
The amount of correlation | 0.266 |
Significance level | 0.50 |
Number | 55 |
According to the results mentioned above, there is a signifi- cant correlation between the two variables with 95% confi- dence, and this result indicates that having positive and effec- tive relationship with others can increase their quality of life, and because an agreeable one is basically altruist, they are more agreeable and popular than antagonistic ones and these features can also increase quality of life which is significantly achieved by having relationship with others.
The research results indicates that there is a negative signifi- cant correlation between death anxiety and quality of life which these findings are compatible with those of previous studies (Naderi and Esamilie (2008). There are also positive and negative correlations between death anxiety and five NEO characteristics as neuroticism, agreeableness, being conscien- tious, flexibility and extraversion, respectively; that is to say, It has a significant positive correlation with neuroticism, a nega- tive significant relationship with agreeableness, and a negative non-significant correlation with being conscientious, a nega- tive non-significant correlation with flexibility and finally a negative non-significant correlation with extraversion. It can be generally said that there is a negative non-significant corre- lation with five factor features of NEO personality traits ex- cept for neuroticism and agreeableness. There is also a positive and negative correlation between five factor features of NEO personality traits and quality of life. There is a positive signifi- cant correlation with quality of life and agreeableness and a positive non-significant correlation with extraversion, open- ness and being conscientious but a negative non-significant
correlation with neuroticism, and this is compatible with the
quality of life definition proposed by Loukarnin and Hentinen
(1997) (quality of life is attributed to health) [4].
Quality of life, especially quality of life associated with
health is affected through individual’s experiences, faiths, ex-
pectations, emotions and attitudes [9]. It can therefore be said
that having high quality of life is positively related to health,
and it can be concluded, based on these findings, that death
anxiety can have many effects on individual’s personality and
makes change his views towards life. Because personality is a determining factor to have relationship with external world,
since if death anxiety made an effect in personality, it would also has an influence on individual’s relationship with envi- ronment and it can change individual’s quality of life which is achieved by a combination of their personality traits with en- vironmental factors. These findings are interesting and are worth being considered by later researchers and experiments in this field which is must be more and more paid attention to.
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