Developing a Model for Predicting Death Anxiety Based on Belief in a Just World and Emotional Empathy with the Mediating Role of Spirituality

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 PhD Student in Psychology, Depatment of psychology, Roudehen branch, Islamic azad university, Roudehen, Iran.

2 Assistant Professor in Depatment of psychology, Roudehen branch, Islamic azad university, Roudehen, Iran.

Abstract

Abstract
Introduction: The purpose of this study was to develop a model of death anxiety based on belief in a just world and emotional empathy with the mediating role of spirituality in middle-aged people.
Methods: The research method was correlational with structural model approach. The statistical population of this study was all people in the age range 45-65 years old male and female referring to health house in the first half of 1977. Klein method was used to determine the sample size and 464 individuals were selected through multistage random sampling. They were selected and completed the Templar Death Anxiety Questionnaire (1970), Belief in the Just World (2005), Batson's Emotional Empathy (1983), and Spirituality (2009). The results were analyzed using path analysis by the AMOS program.
Results: The results showed that the indirect path coefficient between emotional empathy and negative death anxiety was significant at the 0.01 level (β = -0.263 p <0.01). And there was a significant negative relationship between belief in a just world and death anxiety at the level of 0.01 (β = -0.159, p <0.01). It was thus concluded that spirituality mediates the relationship between emotional empathy, belief in a just world, and death anxiety in a negative and meaningful way.
Conclusion: Therefore, it seems that human fear of death is influenced by various factors such as emotional empathy and belief in a just world and there is a need for a comprehensive examination of one's life from different perspectives.

Keywords


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